Or – How To Set Magic In Scotland, Even If Your Scotland Has Shrunk…

Two lovely things have happened to me in the last fortnight. First, a story I wrote in the spring about midwinter, called The Holly and the Ivy, went up on the BBC Scotland Learning website. And second, I did an online Q&A with a wonderfully creative and curious class in West Lothian, as part of their project to answer the question: Can Anyone Be an Author?

Those two lovely things did a wee dance together in my head and made me think about how circumstances can make ‘being an author’ more difficult.

Because, up until four years ago, my cheerful ‘YES, of course, anyone can be an author (if they love stories and are prepared to put in the effort)’ would not have taken into account the particular challenges some potential writers may have. 

One of my usual tips to kids keen to be authors (after the most essential: ‘read lots’) was ‘put down the books, get outside, have lots of adventures and an interesting life so you have things to write about!’ Which I now realise was a naive and and ableist thing to say. Because some people can’t get outside and have adventures, for reasons connected to health, access, resources etc. That doesn’t mean they aren’t having interesting lives, and it certainly DOES mean that their voices and stories are even more vital.

Why have I (finally) realised that, in the last four years? Because I have long covid. Because now I’m disabled, and I can’t do most of the things I used to do. That online Q&A would have been a school visit four years ago, but I can’t easily visit schools nowadays. And I can’t get out and have adventures easily either.

A few years ago, pre-covid, I travelled from Edinburgh to the west coast of Skye and back in one day, to do one hour of research, for one scene in a novel. (A novel I have not yet finished, due to long covid…) Nowadays, it takes me more planning and effort to visit my local bookshop than it used to take to travel to the Isle of Skye, and that bookshop trip might exhaust me for a week.

So, have I stopped writing? Have I stopped researching?

I have to admit, even before that ‘can anyone be an author’ project last week, there have been times in the last few years when I have been asking myself difficult questions. Can anyone be an author, if they have to deal with personal challenges? Can anyone be an author, if their life has changed completely? Can I still be an author? Will long covid stop me being an author?

The answers have been hard to find at times, but I’m delighted to stay that long covid has not stopped me being an author. I am still writing, I am still sharing stories with kids, I am still researching. I’m just doing ‘being an author’ differently.  

I’m writing in short bursts, slowly, with lots of rests, and very long deadlines. I’m writing short fiction: a picture book, The Tall Tale of the Giant’s Causeway; Scot translations like Hansel and Gretel in this Grimm collection; the short story for the BBC. I am still working on long fiction too, like that novel, with that one scene on Skye, but … it’s … so … slow…

I am still doing author events, but I’m doing far fewer, and I’m doing them online.

I’m still doing location research too, because I like nice solid landscape beneath my feet when I’m looking for inspiration to create magical stories. But I can’t go nearly so far from home, without exhausting myself for so long that I’d struggle to write the story I been researching. 

So, the BBC story – about the midwinter battle between the Holly King and Oak King, with a sneaky bit of business by the Ivy Queen – is set on the cycle-path in Edinburgh. It’s set five minutes from my house, so it was relatively easy for me to research. As a bonus, setting it on the cycle-path means I’m using wild areas in a city, rather than rural ones, showing kids who don’t have access to rural areas that they can imagine magical tales near their homes too.  

My available Scotland has shrunk, but it’s still there and it’s still inspiring my stories…

And I’m learning that ‘Yes, anyone can be an author, though sometimes circumstances make it more challenging’.

Just as everyone has different life experiences and interests which make their voices and stories unique, so everyone has different challenges and circumstances, which means that being a writer is different for everyone. So what works for me as a writer won’t work for everyone. (It doesn’t even work particularly well for me any more!)

Yes, anyone can be an author, if they want to be. Some of us climb mountains to find our stories, and some of us find inspiration in our back gardens or even our bedrooms … and that’s ok.

Everyone’s story, however they tell it, is unique and valuable.

If you want to hear me telling the story of The Holly and the Ivy – here it is, illustrated by the wonderful Eilidh Muldoon.