I had the pleasure of attending some sessions in the Jersey Festival of Words a couple of weeks ago, and one of the workshops was ‘Writing and Swimming to Feel Better’ with Cathy Rentzenbrick at the Lido.
Sue Du Feu, Weaver of Words, again pulling me into the threads of your life's tapestry. How relieved I am that the nun didn't win and your stories continue for all of us to enjoy! Cheers to dark tunnels and juicy tomatoes!! xx
I really enjoyed reading this Sue. I’m glad the nun never stopped you writing. You created such vivid imagery that I imagined eating that tomato myself and being plunged into darkness!
I’ve had 2 teachers criticise my writing - once by my French teacher. I was dreadful at French when I began my studies for French GCSE, a D grader at best. So awful was I that the French teacher (whom we all feared) once exclaimed ‘if this is what your French is like, goodness knows what your English is like?!’ English was the next lesson in the timetable that day and my favourite subject of all. I felt I really excelled in English. So holding my heart in the pit of my stomach, I sat through my English lesson while we studied ‘Catcher in the rye’ wondering to myself ‘why bother at all?’. This thought made me cry silently during the lesson which our English teacher noticed. She asked me to stay behind after the lesson and spoke to me gently. When she realised the reason behind the tears she was visibly shocked and surprised. The whole saga ended with my French teacher apologising to me after which all was well with my French and English lessons. I achieved A grades in both.
The second criticism came a few years later during my PhD in biochemistry. My supervisor said to me one day in no uncertain terms ‘you shouldn’t write the way you do. It makes you sound…. simple’. I spent the next few years not understanding how to write in a scientific manner and finding the whole thing very dull, lifeless and dead in comparison to how I wanted to write. Scientific writing bores me to this day and I’m not going to learn to write that way! Writing should not really have to be tamed.
These things leave a mark no matter how many years later. Congratulations on persevering. I didn’t for a long time, will be for ever making up for it, and will never allow my writing to be put down again.
Sue Du Feu, Weaver of Words, again pulling me into the threads of your life's tapestry. How relieved I am that the nun didn't win and your stories continue for all of us to enjoy! Cheers to dark tunnels and juicy tomatoes!! xx
I really enjoyed reading this Sue. I’m glad the nun never stopped you writing. You created such vivid imagery that I imagined eating that tomato myself and being plunged into darkness!
I’ve had 2 teachers criticise my writing - once by my French teacher. I was dreadful at French when I began my studies for French GCSE, a D grader at best. So awful was I that the French teacher (whom we all feared) once exclaimed ‘if this is what your French is like, goodness knows what your English is like?!’ English was the next lesson in the timetable that day and my favourite subject of all. I felt I really excelled in English. So holding my heart in the pit of my stomach, I sat through my English lesson while we studied ‘Catcher in the rye’ wondering to myself ‘why bother at all?’. This thought made me cry silently during the lesson which our English teacher noticed. She asked me to stay behind after the lesson and spoke to me gently. When she realised the reason behind the tears she was visibly shocked and surprised. The whole saga ended with my French teacher apologising to me after which all was well with my French and English lessons. I achieved A grades in both.
The second criticism came a few years later during my PhD in biochemistry. My supervisor said to me one day in no uncertain terms ‘you shouldn’t write the way you do. It makes you sound…. simple’. I spent the next few years not understanding how to write in a scientific manner and finding the whole thing very dull, lifeless and dead in comparison to how I wanted to write. Scientific writing bores me to this day and I’m not going to learn to write that way! Writing should not really have to be tamed.
These things leave a mark no matter how many years later. Congratulations on persevering. I didn’t for a long time, will be for ever making up for it, and will never allow my writing to be put down again.