Find your Inspiration - A Guest Post by Bernadette Maycock

Isn’t it nice when inspiration hits? Don’t you just love it? That bolt of lightning-the light bulb? I adore it, I think it’s that very feeling  that propelled me to open up a laptop years after the end of academia allowed me to close it. But it’s not always like that, is it? More often than not you sit, staring at a blank screen, your brain screaming for help. Desperate. For a literary life-line. For inspiration.

My inspiration came in the form of a text from my best friend Deirdre Reidy -remember that name- you may well be clamoring to buy her book in the future – to tell me about a closed writing group on Facebook. They had an opening, and did I want to join?

 Imagine Write Inspire (IWI) is a group of that does exactly what it says on the tin. At the time I joined, we started a Monday by sharing our writing goals for the week, Tuesday and Thursday we completed writing challenges, Wednesday shared part of our work in progress (WIP) and Friday we’d share tips or pieces we’d found. It was amazing- like my mind had been switched back on. Challenges were short and so easy to fit in to the daily grind. Much as I adored being a full time stay at home mum, I NEEDED this.

Perhaps you miss writing. Maybe you’ve started a piece and want to discuss it with someone, you might want to write and read poetry. Whatever you want, I’ll tell you this- there is a group of people out there for you.

When I joined IWI, it was clear that we were all working from very different hymn sheets-we had the poetry gal-also an expert in all things grammar. We had kiddy stories and poems covered, a cook book author, romance, fiction with a twist, chick lit, young adult, historical fiction and dark and moody stories, all tied together by our leader, the great Carmel Harrington’s (Beyond Grace’s Rainbow, The Life you Left) proven track record and expertise (Carmel had started off self publishing, then had been picked up by Harper Collins – Harper Impulse as a result of her success). And yet we all fit. And we continue to fit, even though the line up does change.

We work hard, writing, critiquing and commenting, but laugh hard too. We empathize when things don’t happen for people and celebrate when they do. ‘How about you post it and see if there’s anything we can help with?’ is more often than not the comment, when a member is banging their head off the table late into the night. On the recent launch of my book, it was the IWIer’s that pushed for me, they fully had my back.

There is a group out there for everyone, I am so sure of this. It might be a ‘virtual’ group such as ours, necessary as we have some very far flung members. It might be a local group which you find in your local library. Hell, you might want to set up your own group!

Whatever the case, if you feel stuck, or just want somebody to talk shop with, take the first step, and start looking. There’s someone out there to help you, and I’m sure you can help them too!

Bernadette’s debut e-book ‘It Started With A Snub’ is available on Amazon now.

Bernadette Maycock can be found, daily (and nightly;) on Twitter: @brmaycock

BRMaycock’s Book Blog : http://brmaycock.wordpress.com

Twitter for Imagine Write Inspire writing group: @IWIers

Public page for people to view work of Imagine Write Inspire (or just have a bookish chat!): https://www.facebook.com/ImagineWriteInspireNewsReviews?fref=ts


Author Bio

Bernadette Maycock (writing as B. R. Maycock) participates in a closed Facebook group called Image, Write, Inspire (IWI), led by the award-winning author Carmel Harrington (Beyond Grace’s Rainbow, The Life You Left) and has contributed to their three publications, “All I want for Christmas,” “Stop Waiting For Friday” and “The Love Anthology; A collection of short stories."

Bernadette has just started a book review blog (https://brmaycock.wordpress.com/) that is in complete infancy, reviewing books that are 'the lighter side of heavy TBR lists,' in particular chick lit (her first love!) and women's fiction.

She lives in Co. Westmeath, Ireland with her brilliantly out there husband, Keith, and four amazing children- Paul, Conor, Aidan and Brian. She can be found on twitter most days as @brmaycock.