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Do you just love writing?Want to improve your writing but don't feel confident enough to do a course? Whatever your writing needs take a stroll through women's words I'll do my best to make your visit a happy one.
School essays were a nightmare. I would have all the words in my head but because I couldn't spell I would find a simpler word to replace the one I really wanted. The word beautiful became nice, breathtaking became grand, and enormous became big. Get the picture? Anyway, many years later, over coffee with a friend I was bemoaning my fate, proclaiming I'm 'jack of all trades but, master of none'. Naturally, as a good friend, she asked why the over-generalization. "Well" I said, "My head is full of little bits of knowledge on lots of things but, I don't have any proof that I know what I'm talking about. "How d'you mean?" She prompted. "No school certificates. No Diplomas. No degrees. Want me to go on?" I asked. "So, go get some" she said." If all it takes is a bit of paper to make you feel good about yourself then go for it girl." "What, me? Go back to school? I hated school." She went on nagging me… it'll be different now I was a grownup (I was 40, not sure I was grown up though)… I'd be going because I wanted to, not because I had to… if I didn't like it I could just walk out… and you know what? She was right. It was extraordinary. I had enormous enjoyment returning to school. I can honestly say the knowledge I gained transformed my life. I only ever did one school certificate, O level English & English Literature (that's UK, not sure what the equivalent is in USA) because… I got hooked on creative writing and enrolled in courses at my local women's centre with Berta Freistadt a fantastic tutor. Why a woman only course? I found it friendlier and more conducive to confidence building. I did try other places but on mixed courses, the men always seemed to dominate the class. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Considering the use of rather long word in some of the above paragraphs, I guess you might be wondering about the spelling problem. Well, I'll let you into a big secret if you promise to keep it quiet. When I decided to go back to school, my kids said it would be a good idea to get a computer. For 'research', they said. Huh! Do they think I was born yesterday? They'd been begging for one forever.I had to admit though, with my handwriting a computer would be useful so, I stopped depriving my poor kids, became the best mum on the planet, and started a love affair, which has continued to this day. Oh, and the spelling? Well, spell check, has dispelled (pardon the pun) that little myth. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What I'm getting at here is simple. You don't have to be good at spelling. You don't have to have fantastic handwriting. You don't have to understand all the technical terms regarding writing. Most word processing packages have spelling and grammar checks now days. Check out our tips on getting your work published. For everything else, there are plenty of books or web sites out there.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All you need is a passion to write mixed in with a little confidence, a few tips, and some 'what if ideas'. Then make some time to write every day. Keep a journal. Carry a notebook and pen, you never know when an idea for a story might pop into your head so, be prepared.Visit the Short Stories by new and published autuors on this site. We would love to see your stories there too. So get writing and lets see your efforts in print. You can send them in to me by going to the contact us page. Then copy & past your story into the form. This is the only way I can accept entries to womens-word.com due to the huge number of spam received by other methods, such as e-mail attachments. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
This is my favourite site for writers. Pay them a visit, you won't regret it.
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