Wife, mother, Poet, Writer, Art Installationist, Stand Up Comedian, Dog Enthusiast. Spending most of my time being creative in a variety of sometimes quirky ways!
I have suffered in my life, I have had wonderful things occur in my life. Concentrating on the wonderful things makes it easier for me to live a great life.
Well it might not truly do that, but I certainly think it does, and if I think it does, then quite likely it does, at least in a small way!
I know when I’m writing, and I get a bit of a slump, and the words stop flowing, a nice cup of coffee will get me going again. And some days, like today, I opt for something a little bit different, a hot cup of something I call a ‘Herbal Chai Caffe-Latte’.
it has coffee in it, so tick for that one, and it has herbs in it too, fresh herbs picked from my garden! I make a small cup of coffee using fresh coffee beans I grind just before I make the drink, and then once the herbs and the coffee are ready, I pop it all into a mug, and top it up with some milk, Delicious hot, tepid, and co
I had one of these today, and it’s certainly helped me,. I think, I’ve written a heap of articles, and posted them to my Medium page, feel free to go along and read what’s there! My brain’s been jumping from here to there, in interesting ways, I think, and I’m hoping I may actually end up making a bit more money from Medium for this month, than it looked like it was going to be, this time last week.
Whether at home, or when out, a nice cup of coffee is always a welcome thing! I’m sure my word count would be much lower, it I didn’t have coffee in my life! Do you like your coffee, or do you prefer tea. Or is your preference a hot chocolate, perhaps? I like one of those too, every now and then.
But coffee is the one that really gets my words happening, and that’s why I appreciate the fact that the place our writing group meets at every week is a hotel that makes great coffee, and hot chocolate, and for those who like it, they make tea, too!
For those of us who prefer it, these cuppas help our creativity for sure! What’s your favourite cuppa? I’d love to know!
To write, you have to have words and ideas, and to make those things worth reading, you need to think about what you write.
I’m a poet, writer, editor and blogger, words are my main tool, and if I want to attract readers for my writing, I Writing little flaffy bits of not much may be fun for me to do, but to make it interesting to others, I need to take it a lot further, and add meaning and relevance to what I’ve written.
I’m the editor of a monthly newsletter, that goes out online as well as in hard copy at the end of every month. In fact instead of typing this on my laptop, I should probably be finishing off that newsletter, because the end of the month is approaching fast!
But I still have a little time, and hey, if it comes out after the end of October, and into early November, the world will not end … But I’ll try to get it done, it’s a volunteer role, but one I personally value, and I know that others appreciate.
Obviously I’m not thinking strongly enough about what I’m currently doing, but such is life. Times and doings go along their way, and it all merges into what is having a life, and doing things … I feel most writers would do their role as ‘a writer’ if they had a personal assistant to deal with the boring things, and also to crack the whip to keep them properly on track!
Some writers actually have such a person, but not me, and not most writers. If I were a well published writer, with a big publishing company waiting on me to write my successful books, the possibility of a personal assistant would be much greater, than my actual situation, which is as a published poet, sort of writing a new book, and a volunteer newsletter editor, and personal blogger, here and a couple of other sites, occasionally.
Thinking about my lackluster efforts in these things is slightly embarrassing, to be honest. I hope one day I may get myself under better control, but I hope no-one is holding their breath waiting for that, because to be honest, it’s probably never going to actually happen.
Thinking about such things though, that has given me this new article, I’m keying here right now, so that’s a valuable thing – thinking and writing, writing and thinking, here I am, working hard on something, and something interesting. I think so anyway.
I sure hope someone else thinks it’s interesting, and if they can leave a comment here to let me know, wow, that would be lovely!
So writers need to be both thinkers and wordsmiths, getting the thought processes happening, and capturing ideas, then turning those words into interesting pieces of writing, first perhaps for themselves, but also ultimately for others as well.
Earlier today I took three geranium cuttings, and I hope once I rescue them from the spot in my car I left them, and plant them out, they will grow, and produce the lovely flowers that attracted me to them as I was on a walk in my local town this morning.
That action, taking the cuttings, has lead to this piece of this article, and is likely to lead to further writing at another time, and when the flowers grow, may lead to different articles too. Geraniums are great plants, needing little but giving much.
Going on a walk can be the same, if you’re a writer – as you’re walking, you’re connecting with the area you’re walking in, seeing things, thinking about them, considering further possibilities of what you see, talking to other people as well perhaps, and getting even more thoughts and ideas.
As life happens, so can new writing ideas happen. Bringing your life, to life for oth
I’m many things, wife, mother, dog owner, writer, and public speaker. I don’t have any special skills, I went to an ordinary public school, and I have no particularly outstanding talents.
But I am a published poet and writer, I’d done some public speaking, and plan on doing a lot more of it, I have a wonderful life, and have many things I’ve done I’m proud of. Those published books, for instance …
I’m also a useful member of my community, and give to others in a variety of different ways. I am a community minded person, there is no doubt about that. I believe in the idea that the more you give, the more you will get.
I’m not talking about money here, I’m talking about other things, important ones, things like respect, kindness, assistance with things in life. I have family and friends who love me, I live in a good home with a roof and walls, as well as air conditioning to keep warm, or cool, as appropriate.
I have more than enough money for what I want, and I love the life I’m living … There are things that aren’t perfect, or course, but I’m dealing with them as best I can, and not suffering unduly.
There are things in my future I’m planning for, and my current life is a fine, one. I want more challenges in life though, some different things to pique my interest, and I certainly feel I will be able to organise. My life is like that – the more I have planned, the more things come to me.
But I am a person with a chronic illness, one that can cripple some people, but no me. This illness I have, Multiple Sclerosis affects different people in different ways, depending on where in their central nervous system they have been damaged by their immune system, causing scarring that can affect how messages/neurons get sent to and from the brain to the rest of the body, ie to the muscles.
When the scarring is extreme, the neurons can be slowed and may not work at all well for the person affected. There are medications to assist, and these are getting better and better. At the moment, the MS medication I’m taking seems to be working well, and I appear to others to be completely unaffected.
I know different but overall, I am going well enough, I’m able to move when and where I want to, walking without needing any mobility aids, which I certainly needed when I was first diagnosed. I’m eating a good healthy diet too, and only moderate amounts of this good food, so my weight is now within the ideal range for a person of my height.
Walking is my best friend, at the moment, and I’m glad to be able to walk our dog, and have in fact planned a fundraising walk, covering the distance from my house to a river nearby. The distance is one I never thought I’d be able to walk back when I was diagnosed with MS.
Lenny, my sometimes walking companion – he loves his toys!
Back then, (in 2010), walking five metres without a walking stick was difficult, now, the walking stick I first got is being used by my husband who has a very damaged hip, in need of an operation, I sure don’t need it!
If you click on the link above, you will see the fundraiser I have just begun, walking to raise funds for the MS Society SA & NT. They have done much to assist people who have MS in the state I live in, South Australia, and I am grateful for the help I have received.
I recently attended a 6 week program – Falls Prevention, and I was inspired to do more for myself personally, and further, to help the MS Society by raising funds for them. Have a read of what I’m doing, and if you can, please give a little, all of the money raised goes to the MS Society, and I know how dedicated the people working there are, and how much good they do for people who have Multiple Sclerosis.
So even though I have a chronic illness, I am working to raise money for the Society, and even though I have this illness, I am working to be healthier, with exercise, and eating a nutritionally sound diet.
My positive attitude to life helps too, and even though I may sometimes have a slightly muddled head, I am writing many words, and publishing books! I have ideas, and time, and I like to use my time to get words written, and when possible published!
As a 59 year old woman with a chronic illness, I reckon I’m doing a good job of living my best possible life. If I can do it, yes, you can too!
As a writer, I have been getting my poems written and put ‘out there’ to the public reasonably well. I felt I had a handle on this ‘writing’ thing, and knew what I was doing.
But then I decided I wanted to write a novel, a series of novels in fact, and things are not travelling along so smoothly. Writing a poem is far more like going for a sprint, you train, and you settle down, and you write a poem, and can get it done in a very quick time, sometimes.
But as I’ve been learning, writing a novel is a much lengthier thing, much more like a marathon, than a sprint, for sure. But keeping going is the only way you can get the words written, in the first draft format, and then there is the editing of that messy first draft …
And after that, there may be more drafts and editing to come. Yes, I love the sprint of the poem – idea comes, words are written, edited, shared maybe, edited again perhaps, and all is done, all within a day or so, sometimes!
I have written a poem in ten minutes reasonably often, with my writing group. When we’re having our regular poetry reading, we always begin with a 5 word challenge, where we’ll ask our guest presenter/poet to give us 5 randomly chosen words from their latest book, or other writing they have available.
Then those present have ten minutes to write something – a piece of creative writing, which most people tend to use for a poem. These are then read out to those present, and the best is chosen, by that guest.
There is a prize for the best piece, a bottle of wine, donated by the venue we hold our event at, which is the Prince Albert Hotel. We are grateful to this hotel for this, and for allowing us to use their venue for our various writing group events.
I always take part in this challenge, but rarely win. I don’t mind, it’s the writing that interests me the most, and chances to write something new can always lead to the possibility of something bigger and better afterwards.
But as I’ve discovered, the writing of a novel is something that takes a much longer time! I have characters and I have a setting. I also have a book title, in fact I have I think twenty titles, for the series of books I want to write …
But the rate I’m going, I’ll be 100 by the time I get this first book written, let alone any more in the series! The novel I’m writing is a Cosy Murder Mystery, which can be somewhere around 75,000 words. I’m on around 42,000 words so far, but I’m feeling like I am a long way away from having a coherent narrative happening for this first novel in the series.
I need to settle on who the possible suspects are, so my main character can interview them, and I have to have something happen that changes everything around for that main character. and I have to throw in red herrings, and have my main character investigate them, and lots of other things as well …
Eventually, I need to have the main character solve red herrings, then the main mystery, and have the bad guy shown to be the villain.
See, a marathon, and definitely not a sprint. I’m hoping to get going and have more of this first Cosy Murder Mystery written soon, but life keeps getting in the way. Actually, the truth is, I keep letting life get in the way – if I was truly committed to this novel, I would ignore ‘life’ and just get on with the novel.
I’m certainly still thinking about this novel, in the back of my mind, and in the forefront of my mind too, at times. But it isn’t happening quickly, which isn’t surprising really, but I’m feeling it is frustrating, because I’m so used to the poetry I write, which happens so much faster …
Will I ever get on with this novel, and get it written? Who knows, not me. Perhaps I’ll never manage to write and have published my first Cosy Murder Mystery? Ah well, at least I can get the poetry written and published. Maybe I should settle down and be content with that?
Maybe, but I do so like the idea of being a Cosy Murder Mystery writer! The idea is much easier of the reality of it though, that’s for sure. If you have any tips and hints for getting a novel written, I’d love to hear what they are, just leave a comment telling me all about it!
Carolyn Cordon - Creative 