You think you also can write a weekly column?? I think yes I can. I was volunteering recently at Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature. As a volunteer I had the best advantage that I can attend 1 session per day free of cost. On the second day of the festival which was my first day as a volunteer there was one session on “How to write a weekly column? ” by Heather McGregor. She is also know as Mrs. Moneypenny and has written more than 700 weekly columns and almost 10 books. I thought I am not a writer. I just write my blog to express my thoughts, but I was very curious about how these writers write and that too every week on a new topic. I decided to attend the session as I believe that there is always a chance to learn something new.

I entered in a session room which was already started getting full by people from various background, some of them were writers in some news paper, some were frequent bloggers. This mixed class of people lead a discussion lead to a point of publication. As those who were already writing for news paper were of the opinion that it is not easy to get your writing  published in some good news paper. But definitely you can write for some website or even for your own blog. Who knows one day you will also write a book.

Mrs. Moneypenny arrived soon. She has a pleasant personality. The moment she started her session, a laughter spread in a room. She said any one can write a good weekly column and if followed her instructions everyone sitting in a room will have one column. I am going to quote her tips here which will be good for anyone who wants to write any thing. The first tip is about deciding the anecdote which you want to write. For eg. You went for a coffee with your friend. Go one writing where you went, what you had, what you talked, the ambiance of the cafe, person with whom you are, etc. Then comes the opinion / observation /advice. This is based on your anecdote. In this part you will give your opinion on the anecdote. For eg. The price of the coffee, about the conversation of with your friend, did you like the discussion, if you like the ambiance, etc.

Once you have written everything then comes an opening and closing sentence. She advised every one that the opening sentence should be strong enough to grab readers attention and which which will give an idea to reader about what to expect. The opening and closing statement should be on the same tangent. 

While I was a silent listener all the time, anecdote from people made the session interesting. The session was quite good for a person like me who is not a professional writer and not even scored good grades for essay writing. I enjoyed the session to the fullest.

And yes !! here I have also written a column while following her guidelines.. See any one can write