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Guest post: The dream that sparked the poem
Bicycling in Brighton, by Pat Neill As a child, I spent a lot of time day-dreaming and it wasn’t until I was in my thirties that I woke up to my night dreams. They came fast and furious, and I...
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Do you notice the hidden connections?
In interpreting dreams, we’re looking for the hidden connections between the dream and waking life. The clue is often in the emotional quality of the dream, which may resonate with the dreamer’s...
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The joy of writing
Last week I was talking about the comfort of dreams, and how dreaming can provide pleasurable experiences for the self which may be ‘only dreams’ in waking life. This happens spontaneously, but we can...
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Six Very Inspiring Bloggers for you!
Great news today – Writing in the House of Dreams has received the Very Inspiring Blogger Award from the lovely Katherine Langrish, writer and story-teller extraordinaire. You may have heard her on...
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The healing power of creative writing
Writing can be therapeutic even when it appears to have nothing at all to do with the events of our lives. Here’s how. In my last post I was talking about the healing power of dreams to ground us...
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Acquainted with the night, by Victoria Field
I’m delighted to welcome writer, poetry therapist and tutor Victoria Field into the House of Dreams today. I’ve attended several of her poetry therapy workshops over the past few years, which I can...
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Live dangerously – do some writing!
A few weeks ago, I received a lovely email from someone who had been here for my Autumn workshop day. Its subject line was ‘Poem inspired by your tablecloth.’ The email was a kind of goodbye, because...
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Art for Happiness!
I’m delighted to welcome the artist, author and creativity coach Val Andrews into the House of Dreams today to talk about her new book. I’ve followed her blog for ages, and feel absolutely in tune with...
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A therapist for the non-writing writer
Writing. It’s amazing. It can help us to explore and gain mastery in our inner worlds of emotion and imagination develop, organise and share our ideas satisfy our natural yearning to create beautiful...
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When was the last time you felt really happy? Write for 10 minutes…
I’m reading Nathalie Goldberg’s book on writing memoir, which goes under the wonderful title of Old Friend from Far Away. As you might expect with Goldberg, it’s full of practical writing exercises,...
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Why you should never read someone else’s journal
In the long hiatus between my mother’s death on October 19th and her funeral last Friday, I wasn’t able to focus on work much at all, and that felt OK and appropriate. I slept a lot, dreamt a lot, read...
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Is your life story yours to tell?
I’ve always suffered from this odd inconsistency as a writer: I love reading memoirs and I have lots of creative ideas for writing one myself, but it’s never felt acceptable to me to go there because...
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10 Fantastic Christmas Presents for Writers
It’s that time again, and the great thing about buying things for writers is that you can give them something that will provide weeks or months of writing pleasure and inspiration without breaking the...
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Writing your memoir: the perils and rewards
This Autumn I devised and taught my first memoir-writing evening course. I had included sessions on autobiographical writing in several of my general writing courses, but I wanted to do it over several...
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Diaries, Notebooks, Journals… Let’s Talk About Personal Writing!
Every year, in early January, I run a workshop called ‘Writing the New Year In.’ It’s one of my favourites, and I look forward to it. My goal is to help people experience the deep pleasure of personal...
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When it Comes to Writing Journals, Why Stop at One?
Today, for the second in my occasional series of guest posts on journaling, I’m delighted to welcome Diane Woodrow in the House of Dreams. Diane is a writer, blogger, workshop facilitator wife, mother...
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‘Writing, for me, is liberating…’
Today, I’m delighted to welcome Judy Dinnen in the House of Dreams to talk about her personal writing, as part of my occasional series of guest blogs on journaling. Judy has an MA in creative writing...
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‘I stopped journalling – it was too dangerous…’
This new post in my guest series on personal writing, by Anne Phillips, vividly evokes the feeling of danger and edginess that writing can bring – something I’ve often felt myself, and that I see in...
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Amongst it are songs, poems, ideas for stories and life…
I’m delighted to welcome my friend Mel Johnston into the House of Dreams this week, to talk about her journals and diaries, as part of my guest series on personal writing. Look at these boxes, bursting...
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Why we need to tell our stories
I wasn’t going to write any more posts about depression and suicide, but I’ve been thinking this week about a writer I knew, Jonny Zucker, who killed himself last year. Jonny’s family have just...
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