Fi Phillips

I recently read a blog article by a friend of mine, Retro Chick about how to create your own personal style. One of the tips it mentioned was looking back at old photos of the younger you to see what you used to wear and how your fashion style has evolved. Since moving house a few weeks' ago, I've unpacked an immense number of boxes and in the process of doing so, have come across files and books of my writing dating back over two decades. Not all of it is good. Some of it is delightful. Other pieces bring back memories of their context. What they all do, however, is provide an invaluable insight into how my writing style has evolved over that time. I'm not the best of poets - prose always comes to me more easily - but I found this poem about my late father. Father He is like a quiet corner shelf, his role not to step into the circle but to remain outside, observing in silence. He is the narrator who whispers our storyline, his kindly tone remaining as a cello's hum. H...

My first photo inspiration blog for 2010. Has the ideas muse left you in the lurch? Have a look at these.

I was initially going to write "I'm not talking about your general self respect, but rather your self respect as a writer" but now I think of it, the two are strongly tied together. I was brought up in a family that was loving and wanted me to write but that also felt I should have a proper job because my writing was just a hobby as far as they were concerned. I followed their lead and trained as a secretary. For years, I toiled away in office jobs and kept my writing as a safe haven to return to in my spare time. I dreamed of having my novels published but ultimately I had little respect for myself as a writer. It wasn't until I penned my first murder mystery play for the drama group I was part of that I began to think that my writing was anything more than a hobby. From then on, I began to make time for my writing, in fact guard that time ferociously. However, I still didn't call myself a writer to anyone other than my inner self. I was a secretary, a P.A., an ...

This was a question posed recently by Christina Katz in her January issue of The Prosperous Writer newsletter. For those of you who haven't heard of this lovely, talented lady, she is the author of Get Known Before The Book Deal, Use Your Personal Strengths To Grow An Author Platform, and Writer Mama. She is a prolific writer of articles for regional, national and online publications, and uses her professional writing experience to 'help writers get on track and get published'. Christina explained her question further as 'who do you dedicate all your hard work to?'. As writers, we're often asked 'why' do we write but to ask whom we write for is an interesting slant on the root of our writing. It's equally as revealing as the why but for me much more thought provoking. At school, I suppose I wrote for my English teachers. For my business, Murdering The Text , I write for my clients - amateur theatre groups, schools and general fundraisers. However, w...

It's been all go in my life over the festive break. There was the normal round of friend and family visits, the attempt to fit the resulting gifts into the house (mainly belonging to our children) and then there was the packing. Now you may be thinking that by packing, I mean packing to go on holiday. What I actually mean is packing up our belongings into many, many cardboard boxes for our house move over the Pennines, indeed over the border to Wales. Our initial move (family and necessities) took place before the new year. The rest of our belongings follow this weekend. And that, kind readers, is my reason for having neglected you for the past few weeks. I have not only been uprooted but I have been without internet access also. I have been cyber-roughing it. So with my belated return to the world of blog, I would like to wish you all the very best of new years and a truly inspiring decade.