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Local like a traveller
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Reading time: 1.01 239 words Hey Reader, You’ve heard the advice “travel like a local” yes? Well, how about instead we do this: Local like a traveller. Everyone thinks they have to travel far, far away to get inspired, to see new things, to meet new people, and you can do. Of course travel is amazing for so many reasons. But your local area is a vast treasure-trove of undiscovered wonders. Seriously: how much of your local area do you really see? Joe and I went for a walk to Queenswood a couple of weeks ago to see the autumn leaves. We’ve been there tons. But this time we took a different path and found a memorial garden we’d not seen before. In it, we learned that Queenswood had been an important source of timber during the wars, and that women had done most of the lumberjacking. I’d never have found that out if we hadn’t taken a path less travelled. And it’s five minutes from our house. Next time you’re out and about, or at a loose end, go explore your local area. If you’re not sure where to start, make like a tourist and hit Atlas Obscura for weird stuff to see in your area. Or Google “weird things to see in You’ll be surprised. Go and see. NOTICE stuff. Then write it down, photograph it, remember it. Et voilá: a neverending source of inspiration and stories. Speaking of a neverending source of inspiration and stories for you to build a writing practice — in January I’m launching something that’ll set your writing on fire. I’m dropping it in December. Stay alert! TTFN, Vicky 🫡 p.s. Know someone who might enjoy this email? Please forward it to them and get them to sign up here.
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Learn to Write Like You Mean It
Join 500+ writers, creatives, misfits, and weirdos and learn to write like you mean it in 10 minutes a week. Get ONE practical tip, story, or shenanigan every Tuesday + a creative goodie bag on Friday 🖖🏼
Reading time: 2.15 534 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, You won’t often find me talking about a “writing habit.” Most people don’t have a writing habit at all. I don’t. I have a practice. But I do use the word “habit” to beat myself up on occasion, and I bet you do, too. “Just make writing a habit!” they say. But they don’t provide instructions on how to do that, and they also don’t really understand what a habit is. A habit isn’t just something we do regularly. It’s “a...
Reading time: 4.14 1,005 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, “My book is a Trojan horse.” Last night at The Marketing Meetup in Birmingham, Sophie Blackmore described her book as a Trojan horse and my antennae started tingling. I hadn’t really thought about books in those words before… Sophie wrote her book with me this year — It’s Only Bloody Marketing — and it is doing exactly what she wanted it to do. She didn’t write it with the intention that book sales would make her bags...
Reading time: 1.25 334 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, Do you have any weird little hobbies? Yesterday I was round at my neighbour’s house. They were packing things to take to Ireland to visit family next week, Christmas gifts and whatnot, and they invited me to peep into an old box. Inside was treasure. A radio transmission log book and a stack of QSL cards dating from the 1940s and 50s. Until yesterday, I knew virtually nothing about amateur radio. Now, I’m mildly...