You're having a laugh, aren't you?

When I saw this card I just had to buy it!

I've decided to view my experience of writing with the lighter touch in response to the rejections frequently coming in right now. I thought I might take a look at the stars. No, don't laugh, well you can! I might as well. I need all the help I can get.

I've always been interested in astrology and recently bought a Moonology Diary which sets out which planets and zodiac signs the moon is moving into and when. These movements also have a bearing on the 12 different houses within your personal birth chart. Each house oversees different areas of your life, so the 3rd house is communication, education. trips, siblings and the 4th house is home and family, where you belong and your past. So on and so forth. Your rising sign is also very important (the way others see you). Still with me?

So what is my chart doing right now? Chaos it seems. With Uranus  moving into Taurus in the 12th house I will feel, so I'm told, discombobulated with a ton of issues keeping me up at night. The alternative...meditate! Ha! Certainly my chart (if I choose to believe) is all focused on my career, which these days I associate with writing as I no longer have a paid job. The 12th House, by the way, covers your fears, spirituality, self undoing (tell me about it!), and the deepest, darkest part! Yay, way to go! So far my chart this year has influenced my 10th House - career and ambitions, all of which have sounded like a roller coaster, and certainly has felt like that with my emotions. And now Mercury is going into retrograde on Friday, so that's a real spanner in the works!

Whether or not you believe all this doesn't matter, however I guess I can always blame my lack of success on the planets! It's a bit of fun if nothing else, and if I can see the funny side, it helps.

If you are looking for some tips on writing there are some great ones to be found in this article in The Guardian. Various authors give some very good advice. I cringed over William Boyd's advice about endings and not planning them out first. Guilty! The idea I really liked was Toby Litt's one on having a pseudonym to work with, so that the writing is not by you! I do have a pseudonym which I used once when I had to submit something without my real name and had to make something up. I didn't need to because I already had one! Perhaps I should use this from time to time. What do you think?

Finally, a word from Alan Bennett : '....to have no sense of humour is to be a seriously flawed human being.' He was talking about Margaret Thatcher, but the sentiment is one I firmly believe in.