This blog post brings together some of my used and usual writing styles, all into one post. a poet friend, suggested I write a poem about something I’d written in a Facebook comment and the more I thought about it, the better it seemed as an idea. So I did it. I can’t decide whether to post the poem here, or attempt to get it published somewhere else first.
By the time I finish writing and posting this blog post, I will have made up my mind about it all. So here are my comments to clarify (maybe!) what I’m writing about here.
“I’m feeling very radical at the moment, this morning after the basket of cleaned washing was tipped on the bed, I folded and put away everything, but I DIDN’T MATCH MY OWN SOCKS! I just put them away in my sock drawer in a colourful unmatched JUMBLE!
I’ve been wearing unmatched socks for about six months now, putting together unmatched socks and wearing them like that, so a striped black and white sock on one foot for instance, and a green plain one on the other foot, for instance.
But to not match up any socks at all, that feels really out there!
One day I may even be radical and brave enough to wear striped clothes with something ‘floral”
That’s it, I’ve sent an edited version of my poem off to The Drabble to see if they will publish it on their site – fingers crossed.
Well I didn’t write about novels, but now I’m wondering whether the main character in one of the writing I have on the go might wear unmatched socks too … Who knows what might happen, that’s what I love about writing fiction!
I have to say thank you to Sarah Jane Justice, the poet who suggested I write this poem, Many thanks!
In my blog post before last, I wrote about the idea that what writers are simply people who write. Whatever genre or form they write in, if they write, then they are writers. I’ve been doing some research this morning (by research I mean – wandering around the internet). What this ‘research’ has made me think, or realise, is that people are strange, and they are normal, and they are wrong, and they are right, and that I am all of those things too.
I read a Facebook post, a random one, where someone posted a comment telling she had breast-fed her two children for twenty months each, and by her calculations, she had produced a particular number of litres of breast milk. This statistic seemed weird for a number of reasons, but there were other people on that Facebook page who didn’t seem to think what she’d written was odd.
So that got me thinking – if they didn’t think it odd, what right did I have to think it was? And then that got me thinking, hmm, I could write something about that, because I’m a writer, and having things to write about is one of the things I am always looking for. And that led me to the heading for this particular blog post “As A Writer …”.
Because as a writer, I sometimes do things that most other people may never think about doing. I look at things quite deeply, sometimes, with no other aim but to know more about it, and how it may affect an invisible person or thing that is in my head, ie a story character I have.
And as a writer I actively don’t want a full time job, because that would completely take away too much potential writing time. I know there are some writers who have full time jobs, people are different, I know that. And as a writer, I am thrilled that people are different, because that means I can make my characters do all kinds of different things, sometimes things I’ve never done, but want to know more about.
As a writer, it can be my job to find out about such things, find out for my characters, and for the story, or for an article or a blog post. That breast feeding mother I mentioned before had a job title that completely surprised me, and as a writer, I will probably look further into that job, and what it entails, well, I might do that anyway.
As a writer though, I may find some other eye-catching job title, and research that one instead. I have a novel I’m working on at the moment, and I can’t see how that snippet of information would fit in, so I may just leave it and follow up if it ever feels relevant. As a writer, I can wander the world, online, or for real, and I could be working as I travel. As a writer, I am always working, potentially, even if it looks like I am being a tourist.
I’ve been reading about Stoicism lately, and as a writer, I am finding many worthwhile ideas there, especially the ideas about having meaning and purpose in life, beyond the day to day things. The Stoics believe in wisdom, ethics, having courage, justice, and temperance. I feel these things are the best way to go personally, if I am to be the best person I can be.
As a writer, I feel that part of my task with my writing is to teach, to interest, and to inspire my readers. I may not write directions on how to be a better person (although some of what I write may help there), what I am doing, or aiming to do with my writing is to open up hearts and minds, to the millions of ways to be, and ideas for leading a better, or more worthwhile life.
So really, the point of this blog post is to reinforce the idea that if you are, or want to be a writer, the world the there waiting for you, so pick up your pen, or your keyboard, and, as a writer, do your thing!
Carolyn Cordon - Creative 