Some people think a blank page is scary but, to me, a blank page is exciting because I’ve no idea yet what I could fill it with. It’s like that moment when you wake up and see that the garden has been covered with a thick fall of snow and you know that you’re going to be the first person to make footprints in it. You can use that snow to build a snowman or you can lie down in it and make snow angels. A blank page is just the same and, using your imagination, you could turn a blank page into literally anything!

What could you do with your blank page?

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I’ve been running writing workshops for adults, children and young people for over 20 years and I’ve often been asked where the book of ideas is. Well, it’s finally coming!

I’m 50 this week and it feels like the time is right to commit some of my knowledge to paper in order to share it with a wider audience.

I’m beginning with a book for children (aged 8-12) and, for the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing ideas from that book on my blog (here) for young writers to have a go at.

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The Sheffield Hole in the Road was a major landmark which was destroyed in 1994. For myself, my main memories of it are from when I was a child looking at the fish in the tank. I’d be taken to see the fish on shopping trips with my mum. The fish and the Hole in the Road inspired by short story which was Highly Commended in the Sheffield Short Story Competition. I read it alongside other Sheffield winners last night. What a lovely event it was. Here’s my story:

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The last of the toothpaste was still sitting there on the bathroom sink. She knew that she should use it. it was only toothpaste after all. it was silly to be sentimental about a plastic tube. But she was and so there it stayed, day after day.

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I’m not sure when or where it started, but it feels like I’ve always made a collage around New Year. An ex-boyfriend tells me that I introduced him to my New Year collages back in the late 1990s so I must have been doing it for at least twenty years. Way before I became a coach, I was already interested in being the architect of my own life and saw that there was a value in spending time reflecting on what I wanted. And what better time to reflect on that than at New Year? So I began using words and images to create a vision for how I wanted my future to look. For the last 2 years I’veI shared the experience as a workshop and, at the start of 2020, I’m looking forward to presenting the workshop at Kollider from where I’ve been running the Writers Hub in 2019.

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Inspired by Suzannah Evans’ blog for the Gladstone Library, we’re just chatting about how writers need to look after themselves at Hub HQ and about how we can look after our Hubsters. Building community is a good starting point.

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Musings on making time to write, featuring my long-listed entry to the Sheffield Authors Short Story competition

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It’s Mental Health Awareness Week and also Dying Matters Awareness Week. I wrote a piece for the Huffington Post about how the two can be related.

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I’m just back from a big trip to Sri Lanka with my children. We had a wonderful time in a country which was characterised for me by the way in which people of different faiths lived peacefully together. I’m so saddened by the news today and my heart goes out to the people there.

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This week in  my workshops, we’ve been writing about change which has provided some rich inspiration. After all, whether it’s internal or external, change is at the heart of all stories. As our last exercise yesterday we started writing about a character’s ordinary day and then gave each other random elements of change that we had to incorporate.

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We’ve been having fun in my workshops this week with a box of Untranslateable Words that my friend bought for me my birthday. Here are a couple of pieces that I wrote in response to the words I was given. Enjoy!

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Our experienced practitioners Fiona Watson (Mindfulness) and Beverley Ward (Writer and Creative Coach) will take you on a journey of mindfulness, writing and walking in the beautiful Longshaw Estate

We invite you to a fabulous day out at the stunning Longshaw estate where we will teach you the joy of mindfulness practice and creative writing submerged in nature!

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I’m not sure when or where it started, but it feels like I’ve always made a collage around New Year. An ex-boyfriend tells me that I introduced him to my New Year collages back in the late 1990s so I must have been doing it for at least twenty years.

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My writing groups have been writing Christmas stories, inspired by song titles. Here’s one of mine. Happy Christmas. x

Santa Claus is coming to town

He’s making a list and checking it twice. And then he checks it three times just to be sure. Three is a lucky number after all.

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Thanks to funding from Off the Shelf, I was able to run a workshop on pitching to agents as part of the festival this year.

Over thirty people turned up and the feedback from the event has been very positive.

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I don’t typically write short stories but during the workshops that I run, I often begin pieces that could be short stories so I’m trying to challenge myself to type them up and submit them more often.

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“Beverley’s writing group is the highlight of my week. It feels wrong if I ever miss the class, like something’s missing. I immensely look forward to the writing activities that Beverley suggests: they’re creative, and guiding both in my writing and in my life.” ~ Delaina Haslam

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I’ve been making New Year’s collages for as long as I can remember. I do it in place of making resolutions, enjoying the opportunity to reflect on what I want from the coming year in all aspects of my life.

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I’m excited to be taking over from Liz Cashdan in running the WEA Writing for Children course in Sheffield in September. The course runs on Friday mornings during term time at the Quaker Meeting House. The first session is this Friday (22nd September) at 10.15am

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