Sunday, July 06, 2008

Of Laryngitis and Workshops

The Society of Women Writers WA held their Day of Writing Workshops yesterday - and it was good. I had been asked to present a workshop on "The Art of Critiquing Well" and until Friday afternoon I really didn't know if I would be able to do it. The previous Friday I woke up with a scratchy throat which escalated during the day to a full scale searing throat inflammation accompanied by a pounding headache. Next morning I had lost my voice. The best I could manage was a whisper - and it stayed that way until Thursday when it slowly started to improve. Even so it was more like a murmur than normal volume.
By Friday midday I decided I could manage with the aid of a microphone (and inadvertently sent the organisers into a spin by starting my email requesting one with "I've been struggling with laryngitis". Sorry, Linda.)
Well I managed although my voice has gone back a few notches to a whisper today. I find these events very stimulating both as a teacher and student and the session, I think went well. I stayed on for another session and wished I could have gone to them all. What a collection of gifted writers giving freely of their knowledge - Helen Iles, poet and editor, Janet Woods, a prize winning romance novelist, Jennifer Langley-Kemp, poet and short story writer, Ian Toyne, actor and playwright and Elizabeth Bezant, writer and writing coach. If you weren't there you really did miss something special.

4 comments:

Satima Flavell said...

I'm glad you made it through OK, Helen. It's amazing what we can rise to when we have to, isn't it? You probably feel as if you've been set back several days, though because the effort of rising to the occasion can be very debilitating:-(

Laura E. Goodin said...

Pity time and space are so tyrranical, or I would have been there!

Helen V. said...

It was stressful physically and I've been hibernating since but my voice is slowly coming back. I must say I was rather worried because the last time I lost my voice (around six years ago)it stayed lost for three months and I needed to see a speech therapist to get it functioning normally again.

Helen V. said...

Thanks, Laura. I would have been good to see you too.