Weekend Inspiration #3: Sian Fair

Hey,

I'm back today with a guest post by one of my favorite British scrapbookers/storytellers: Sian Fair, whose blog, From High in the Sky, is full of stories, scrapbooking layouts, sewing and knitting. It's one of the blogs I visit regularly and there's always something special for me there. I "met" her in one of Shimelle's classes and every month, I try to participate to her Storytelling Sunday challenge. If you're not yet familiar with it, every first Sunday of the month, we all gather on her blog to share one of our stories. We're extra lucky as Sian shared 2 of her scrapbooking layouts with us AND you have a cool writing challenge waiting for you, if your heart feels so inclined. I prepared my story for tomorrow, so I hope you'll join us there! 

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Hello,

Right up to my teenage years, I believed everyone thought the way I did. That writing was like breathing, that life without a notebook was no life at all. I wrote letters to my friends, I published family newspapers. I entered poetry competitions and I took my turn editing the school magazine. I thought about journalism; but that got lost somewhere along the way as I pursued my second love of History. It took a hobby to bring me back.

I discovered scrapbooking. The simple act of gathering up photos and putting them on a page with some decoration and a few words. I started small and then I realised that I wanted to dig deeper, to record my life and tell my story. Now I’m passionate: everyone has a story and I want to hear it!

That’s the idea behind Storytelling Sunday, which runs on my blog on the first Sunday of every month. Sometimes I’ll get an email and it will say something like – I’d love to join in, but I don’t think I can write.

Do you know what I say? I say: if you can talk, you can write. Really. I deal in memories; in stories about ordinary lives, made extraordinary by the way we remember them. And you don’t have to go back far to make a start. We all know how to talk about what we did yesterday: we do it all the time! Write it like that. It doesn’t have to be fancy to have meaning. That’s what I say.

There are beautiful words out there waiting, to be sure, lyrical words, outrageous words; but you don’t always need them to tell a good story. I’ve always believed that if you want to start, but you don’t know how, you just need to start anyway. Simply, quietly, with a notebook and pencil if it suits; and a story about something you do every day. That’s how I work. I can’t write on a computer, so I don’t; and I can’t pull a story right out of my imagination, so I write about what I know. And that’s fine with me, for I have one other piece of advice I like to offer anyone who asks. Remember: whatever you write? It’s right.

..and whatever you write, I’d love to see you at Storytelling Sunday tomorrow. The rest of the community would like to meet you too. You won’t find a friendlier bunch anywhere on the internet. Guaranteed.

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Sian Fair lives in the UK with her husband and two teenage children. She makes stuff, she blogs on From High in the Sky, and she is currently writing for the UK scrapbooking magazine Scrap365.

Thank you a million times, Sian, for writing this post and for sharing 2 of your layouts. As for you, readers, don't hesitate to visit Sian's blog tomorrow to read some good stories or sharing one!

Have a good weekend,

Sabrina S.