Feeling charitable

Yesterday I had a meeting with that charity I was talking about, and we clarified what I thought I could help with. One way is getting them in the local paper, the other is me writing / subbing their newsletters. I told them it was absolutely ok however they want to do it, even if they just want to throw some thoughts randomly on an email, as I’d be able to scrub up an article from that. And of course, most importantly, be free to tell me if they didn’t like anything! The upshot was we all left the meeting feeling rather pleased, and I even felt a little jaunty of step heading back here.

Before I sound too ‘holier than thou’ which isn’t my intention, this idea totally works both ways. Writing is like drawing, one of the key most important things is to practise every day, and if possible, out of your comfort zone every so often. Even better if it’s published writing, as, regardless of being paid, there is something about it that gets you in a discipline of deadlines and the fact that your words will have an audience helps you fine-tune and polish. It also helps with spotting weaknesses, such as I know I have to be extra vigilant with tenses or one sentence will happily roam through all three and do a twirl.

Writing a blog is good, with the additional pleasure of comments, but if you are thinking about seriously getting into writing, why not contact your local charity and see if they need an extra pair of hands on the keyboard? Guaranteed they will be pleased to hear from you no matter what you can do, and ok, it doesn’t (shouldn’t!) pay, but for something that could take you as a writer two hours, it might take the charity two days or longer, so it helps them doubly by freeing up their time to help others. And if you haven’t been published before, there is that thrill of being ‘the writer’ – the thrill us wannabe’s live for! Anyway, just a thought!