Guest Blog: Sarah Banham - Team Work

Huge thanks to Ruth for inviting me to submit to this blog. I’ve decided on the theme Team Work as I’ve recently reminded myself how that affects every area of my life - and I’m here for it.

Before we begin, there’s a few things to highlight. I have a quirky personality. It’s potentially undiagnosed ADHD which I embrace as it answers A LOT of questions. This quirkiness is reflected in my lively writing style whether that’s through a character in my novels or in my upbeat writing style in non-fiction. Oh yeah, I love an emoji 😉 and an interrobang?! This is an informal blog, right? Right? And, for the eagle-eyed among you, you’ll notice that I’m lover of the Oxford comma.

So, Team Work. Let’s begin with my working life.

I’ve been writing for 40 years, fiction and non-fiction, have published 5 fiction books (4 novels and one anthology), 7 non-fiction books, been included in 8 anthologies/collections and ghostwritten 3 books, all creative non-fiction. I’ve also had several stints with copywriting and blog writing for clients😊.

I’m a writing coach, and I run a business called For The Love of Books ( www.loveofbooks.co.uk ) where I offer services including proofreading, editing, ghostwriting, and workshops/courses. Of all the services I offer I think coaching is themost exciting one because it means I get to empower new writers and guide established ones.

On the periphery of my business I offer a podcast called The Versatile Writer, a monthly newsletter, and I lead a community writers’ group called Writers of Essex which is kindly supported by Society of Authors. I’m also a member of SoA, ALLi (Alliance of Independent Authors), and RNA (Romantic Novelist’s Association).

Later than most, in 2022 and as a (im)mature student, I graduated university with a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing. (Hear that Mrs Stracey, Year Head at secondary school? I’ve got a degree. Bet that surprised you, didn’t it? To be fair, it surprised lots of us – most of all me, because it turns out I do have a brain after all. Who knew, right?)

I was one of those kids whose brain wasn’t quite developed enough as a child to fully understand what school was about so, evidently, I waited until I was an adult (ha! Me, an adult?!) to learn, learn, learn. It turns out that learning is fantastic (with the right teacher. Me? Bitter, nooooo!). Seriously though, brain maturation doesn’t happen to everyone when it’s meant to. Ooh, ask me to talk about that and undiagnosed ADHD sometime, will you? It’s a lot of fun – but only if you can keep up 😊

Nothing, not one thing, mentioned above could have been achieved without the support of others. That’s team work at work right there. Everyone who had an active role or stood on the periphery cheerleading helped make it happen.

I’ve spoken and written about the relationship between writers and readers lots of times because it’s something everyone overlooks or is deemed to be just a given. Here’s what I think: You write a book, the reader reads it. Except it’s not that simple. The words came to you in a specific order that didn’t exist before. They came from your imagination and possibly years/decades later a reader reads them. But without the reader your words won’t be read … so what happens if your book never reaches a reader? ☹ How will you complete that universal circle? (A writing coach can help…just saying 😉).

Team work is a huge part of all our lives.

Let’s move on to home life.

A couple of decades ago, we ran a family photography business. We moved around much of the UK photographing equestrian events, motor racing including all kinds of vehicles, and we covered other events too. A typical event would be two of us in separate arenas while the third dealt with customers. We rotated frequently and, later, when orders came in we each would all take a role and see it though. We did this mostly at weekends or evenings while each of us held down a full-time job during the week. When one needed a rest, the other two would pick up the slack. This was the ultimate in team work as far as I’m concerned.

Even now, when it comes to independently publishing one of my non-fiction books for instance, I write it, my daughter will proofread and edit at least one of the rounds, and my husband will format it and press the ‘publish’ button. Team work. Reliable and efficient team work.

You could argue that I’ve highlighted home life by slapping a coating of work through it. And, yes, you’d be right. This could be because we work from home but we have strict boundaries in place which comes from years of keeping everything in its place. That Friday night commute down the hallways into the social-life venue that is our lounge is a glory to behold. Sometimes there’s traffic, other times it’s a clear run, but mostly it’s an easy commute.

Let’s touch on health now. Health is paramount for allowing work and life to continue. A lot of writers, me included, live with anxiety and/or depression and some of us manage them with medication. There’s no shame being on medication, and without it I wouldn’t be who I am or have achieved what I have. So, for me, meds are key. The reason I’m bringing this often-taboo-but-doesn’t-need-to-be topic up is because the health care professionals and I are a team. We work together to ensure I live a normal life (although it’s rare to have ‘me and normal’ in the same sentence, I’ll admit! 😉IYKYK). Team work is vital in this capacity.

And finally, team work within community groups.

Ruth and I have been connected for a few years now. I met her through the previously-mentioned Writers of Essex group. We’ve also worked together at book and author events and, more recently, on Season 15 of my podcast, The Versatile Writer (Episode 1: Writing Residencies). I spoke with Ruth and another author, Julia Stone, about our individual takes on residencies. That was team work working beautifully. We each brought something special to the conversation by sharing our own experiences of what a residency was/is/can be.

I hope this blog has opened your eyes to how team work plays an important role in everyday lives – perhaps in your life too?

SJ Banham – For The Love of Books  ( www.loveofbooks.co.uk )