Happy New Year!

Now that Santa has returned to Lapland leaving a trail of mince pies in his wake,

I wish you all a sparkling 2015, and a year of happy writing ahead!

I hope you had an enjoyable festive season, and, now the Christmas jumpers are out of sight, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you a very happy and healthy, and of course creative, 2015!

To celebrate the arrival of the New Year, I’m introducing a new 1-1 mentoring service for writers, which allows me to mentor students direct in person or via skype. If you’d like a personalised mentoring session, or a one hour consultation on developing your idea for £35, please check out the below webpage link:

http://www.susanhodgetts.co.uk/?page_id=512

I’ve also published an updated and revised version of my wellbeing booklet, 10 Tips for Living Creatively in the Everyday, for 2015.

10 Tips is a beautifully designed 30-page booklet exploring 10 easy ways to use your creativity in daily life – whether you consider yourself to be creative or not. It embraces the idea of making small, simple daily or weekly changes, and encourages people to think about how they approach their day, empowering each individual to explore what their own creativity means to them.

It’s available to buy online through my website, at http://www.susanhodgetts.co.uk/publications.html, or on Amazon sites worldwide, priced at £2. Do take a minute to have a look.

And last but not least, the next Writing for Wellbeing course, which runs via email, is coming up on January 19th, and can help you kick-start your year and your life:

http://www.susanhodgetts.co.uk/?page_id=344

“Open, inclusive and inspiring.”
R. Brooker, Writing for Wellbeing, 2014

Be inspired in 2015!

Susan x

New Writing for Wellbeing course online, and exploring your writing voice

(c) Robert McCann

I have some exciting news to announce! Following on from the enthusiasm of a fab bunch of participants on the recent Writing for Wellbeing Taster Workshop, I’ve created a brand new 4 week online course, meaning the course is open to YOU – yes, it’s open to anyone, anywhere in the world!

Writing for Wellbeing is a brand new online course that allows you to work through weekly writing tasks at your own pace, and then share your progress with the rest of the group in a structured discussion via Skype.

It’s now proven that writing expressively about our lives and feelings can lead to a profound improvement in health. Building upon the ground-breaking research of Dr. James Pennebaker and the work of John F. Evans, the course will explore guided writing experiences including expressive, transactional, legacy, affirmative and poetic writing. Participants do not need to have any proficiency with or affinity for writing to benefit, just an enthusiasm to explore their own voice, and express themselves on the page.

The course runs for 4 weeks, and starts on the 21st July. Cost is £40/$70, and includes a minimum of 3 weekly tasks delivered via email, plus a 20 minute skype catch-up at the end of each week.

Please see http://www.susanhodgetts.co.uk for booking, and further details.

Thanks to Ruth, Kate, Alessandra and Cedric for inspiring the creation of this course!

Before I sign off, it seemed relevant to this post to say a word or two on the meaning of exploring your writing voice. I had a student recently who asked me how long it might take to find her voice, and expressed a wish to find it within a given timeframe.

I’m not sure anyone should worry too much about when they’ll find their voice, and I think sometimes too much emphasis is placed on this concept. Your voice isn’t something that can be quantified or measured, and it will grow, develop and change throughout your life journey. I believe that we each already have a voice, and it will gradually become clearer, stronger and more familiar as you develop both in terms of your writing craft and life experience.

The most important thing I’ve learned is to enjoy the journey, rather than being entirely  focussed on quantifiable results.

Wishing you another enjoyable beautiful sunny day!

Susan