Posts Tagged Dyslexia
5 Questions About Writing With . . . Lee Benson
Posted by Sally Jenkins in 5 Questions About Writing, Poetry, Writing for Children, Writing Handicaps on May 6, 2025
Lee Benson was the owner of successful Birmingham art gallery ‘Number Nine’ for 14 years and the sales director of a commercial gallery prior to that. 
He is a fine watercolourist with two sell out solo exhibitions and many group shows. Lee has published 11 children’s illustrated books, six of which were recorded for TV. He has visited over 100 schools performing the stories and has been a guest author for World Book Day as far afield as Dubai and Stourbridge. Lee has also had nine books of poetry published, with two new collections due for release early this summer. He has produced three novels, a ghost story and seven complete discographies in collaboration with A. Sparke. Under the pen name of Lee Hemingway he released an alien crime novella in the USA.
Lee can be contacted through his website: https://thecreativeleebenson.com/
All of his books can be viewed on his Amazon page.
How do you discipline/motivate yourself to write and do you set daily targets?
Great question. My mind is always busy and so is my life. I put myself into writing mode by walking in the fresh air and absorbing the atmosphere. This applies to both my children’s stories and my poems. When my mind is in the right gear, I write. I write from within the story. I see it, then write it.
What are the most important qualities required by a writer? Do you have them?
Self-belief.
I do not believe in writing to order or being formulaic. If I’m not feeling it myself, it gets binned. I hate rewriting chapters so I edit in my head first before committing to paper. My wife is a great listener, she tells me if it flows or if it doesn’t make sense. We all love reassurance that what we have created is good. Children are the best critics for my children’s tales.
How do you market yourself and your books?
I use all social media badly. I find performing at schools is the best way to sell my children’s books. After a lockdown drought, schools are letting us indie authors in again but the receptionist frontline can be a tight fortress to get through, plus teachers have to follow protocols now.
Which writing resources have you found useful, e.g., books, courses, organisations, websites etc.?
Because I am dyslexic writing courses are difficult and frustrating. Searching for help is even more challenging. You have to ask the right logical questions to get to the right logical answers and I have a problem with thinking logically. So I rely on my brain and my life experiences to help me.
A top tip for other writers?
Write away selflessly without editing. Don’t think you have to write a certain amount of words per day. If it flows, then go for it.
About Random Hopefulness – published October 2024
Random Hopefulness is a collection of observations on humour, love and loss, with a little tongue in cheek included for good measure. It is the first of a new series of poetic oddities. Lee focuses on what is all around us. He says, “Sometimes I don’t realise I am writing at mad unholy hours and voila in the morning, there it is, Random Hopefulness is the answer.”
Writing with Dyslexia
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Authors, Writing Handicaps on June 30, 2011
Image via Wikipedia
Most of us misspell words, punctuate incorrectly or get our grammar in a twist from time to time. Usually a quick read through the story or article will throw up the errors made in our haste to get the words down on paper. Then it’s a simple job to correct them and send the manuscript on its merry way to the editor.
But imagine if it wasn’t so easy. What if you couldn’t spot your own errors and continually made the same basic mistakes over and over again – despite having read The Penguin Guide to Punctuation six times? What if you’d been labelled ‘educationally subnormal’ at the age of 15 ? What if there were stories and poems buzzing around inside your head but no one would take your writing seriously because of the spelling and punctuation errors?
That was the experience of a friend of mine until finally, at the age of 60, she was diagnosed with dyslexia.
“I cried tears of such relief when I was told by an educational psychologist at the University of Birmingham that my IQ is above average and it is not my fault that I am a slow learner,” she said. “He discovered that I am seriously dyslexic and have problems writing paragraph sequences. I am very slow at reading print and need to read something up to 6 times before I fully understand it.”
The computer, with its spell-check facility has been my friend’s saving grace. It doesn’t flag all her errors but at least enables her to get her stories on to paper. Since her diagnosis she has successfully completed a BA Hons. in Creative Writing – demonstrating that she has the imagination and creativity to become a writer when armed with the right tools.
My friend isn’t the only writer to have battled dyslexia. Novelist, Natasha Solomons told the Evening Standard, “No one explained to me that the written shapes on the page were related to the words we spoke. I thought there were two separate languages: one sounds and one squiggles.”
The author and women’s campaigner Erin Pizzey is dyslexic, as is the actress and writer, Susan Hampshire.
So next time you’re struggling to find the right word or trying to decide whether an apostrophe is required, be thankful that you can easily browse the thesaurus or check in your grammar textbook. Some people aren’t so lucky but still battle through to make a success of writing.
By the way, the illustration to this post is called ‘Dyslexic Vision’. If any of you suffer from dyslexia, maybe you could let me know if this is how the printed page appears to you?
Sally Jenkins 