Author: carolyncordon

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.
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Ways To Write A Novel

carolyncordon

I am a writer and at the moment I am writing a novel, not my first, but I expect the current one is more likely to actually have some chance of being a publishable book. The first novel began as a NANOWRIMO project, where I wrote the first draft of at least 50,000 words on one month. I can’t remember if I wrote it in November, but know it was just one month, whichever month it was.

I am the editor of this community newsletter, and some of my writing group members help me get each issue out every month, by writing their own page their own page.

NANOWRIMO refers to National Novel(or November) Written in a Month, if you are interested in this, google it and you will find much more information, I am only an interested onlooker really. But certainly writing 50,000 words in one month, if you can dedicate your time to it, is a fine way to get a novel on the way, and ready for action!

So that’s one way. But the way I am currently working on my next big novel project is happening in a different way. I am writing a novel in a particular genre (Cosy Murder Mystery), and I am using prompts given at my writing group, to get some of the novel written. I have setting and characters, and with one third of the novel written so far, I have a fair idea on what is going on, and needs to go on in this first novel in my “At Talloola” Cosy Murder Mystery series.

These prompts are given to writing group members at each of our weekly meetings, for both a writing exercise at the meeting, and also another one for homework. So that is potentially two pieces of my novel written every week, based on those prompts received on the Thursday. This method has certainly been useful to me, and I hope it will go on being so.

But as I am not finished yet, and have been working on the novel for quite sometime, it may be getting close to another novel writing motivating method, and that is a writer lock in session, where I and other members of my writing group choose a particular writing project we’re working on, and spend a whole day at our usual venue, just writing. I may even have written some of this particular novel at one of these lock in, but I suspect not. Because of Covid, we haven’t been able to have a lock in at our chosen venue …

And of course, I also just sit down at home in my chosen writing place, and write. This has how most of this current novel has been written, but going back and finding previously given writing prompts can help me to get more of the novel moving too. Writing prompts are just random things, and the mind, or my mind for sure, takes the prompts to all kinds of places. And when we read our responses written, it is always incredible how far we all go in different directions, based on the same prompts.

We’re all writing in different genres, some prose, some poetry, and we enjoy hearing where other members have taken on the prompt …

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On Being Weird and Loving It

carolyncordon

This is a definition of the word Weird: veryĀ strangeĀ andĀ unusual,Ā unexpected, or notĀ natural

Some of those things sound like me, to some extent, for sure. I certainly have a dislike of the possibility of being thought of as ‘ordinary’ … I’m not weird in a scary way, and I feel the ‘not natural’ aspect doesn’t apply to me.

But being ‘strange and unusual’, and doing unexpected things, these could certainly apply to me, I think. Not ‘very’ strange, just a bit strange, I wear that label with pride, for sure. I am a poet and writer, with eight published books so far, with a couple more on their way, a Cosy Murder Mystery and a poetry collection.

One of my collection of Unicorns, possibly the cutest one!

And at the moment, I’m the Writer in Residence at a cafe near where I live, and I hope being there, a little bit different to the norm, will help to bring in customers to the cafe, and also, of course, to come and talk with me about my books and writing. And I have a Chronic Illness too, a slightly unusual one, there are around 25,600 people in Australia currently living with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). So that too, could be considered unusual.

I’m enjoying this new role in my life, and I know lots of other writers and poets, and creative people who also have been called ‘weird’. If you’re one of the weird ones, I call on you to embrace your inner weird, and be proud, Being unusual sure beats the heck out of being just the same as everybody else!

There are lots of other ways and things about people that may bring on a label of ‘weird’ but to right them off as being not worth while is a stupid way of looking at the label – I say wear that label proudly, and live your weird life, sharing weirdness, embracing other weird people with their unusual, strange and unexpected lives!

That bit about being ‘not natural’ I don’t agree with that, many weird people are far more in touch with Nature than ordinary people are! I love trees, and clouds, and I love watching birds!

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Research, Write, Retail

carolyncordon

When you get an idea for a book, you do a little bit of research, (perhaps), then you write the book, then the retail side of things comes into it, and you sell your book (or your publisher will do that side of things). For me, lived experience, random ideas, google, and reading books related to what I want to write about is my research. I don’t need to do anything too hefty, for the kinds of books I want to write.

The writing part, that’s where you get really serious about what being a writer is all about. You plot out your book, whether fiction or nonfiction (or you go the other way, and just write, and tidy up later). Either way, you have to get a books worth of words written and more, before you can have a book.

So you do the hard part, and a book comes into the world, then the other hard part comes to the fore, and you sell the book, sell the idea of having the book, sell yourself as a great writer, and sell your book as a must have item for your personal library, or bedside table pile of ‘books to read’. You tout your book to libraries, and book shops perhaps, and ;et friends and family know you have a new book out.

Writers can be shy and retiring types, and that can be a bonus in having time and inclination to huddle down and get your writing done, but once you have your book written, you have to come out into the whole other world, and get down and book/boogie, talking about your book to as many people as possible, in as many places as possible.

Being a writer is a many faceted thing, and if you’re not prepared to do the selling side of things, you might not do very well out of it, financially … My most recent ‘thing’ is being the Writer-In-Residence at a local cafe, once a week. Every Monday morning, I head out to Hamley Bridge, not too far away, with a pile of my books for people to look at, and perhaps buy. I sit there, chatting to anyone who wants to chat, ready to listen to them too, because for me as a writer, everyone may have a story I can use in my writing – with names and details changed of course, to make the story my own!

Some of my books on display at Gallery 14

I’m there for a couple of hours, chatting, and just being there, so that people will see me, and connect me up with that author, and perhaps even if they don’t want any of my books there, they may tell friends and others about me, and that could lead to that other person coming along and buying a book. My book sales so far are not anything to get excited about, but that’s ok, I love chatting to people, I have writing time if no-one is there to chat with, and my coffee is free! (It’s good coffee too, and the food looks excellent!)

If I go on enjoyng being a Gallery 14, as I am now, I imagine I could become a regular, for sure. It’s only fifteen minutes from home, the books aren’t too heavy for me to carry, and I’m having a good time, why would I not give up a morning every week to do this! If I eventually go on to selling more books, more bonus. I would only have been sitting at home letting the dog out and back in, and writing (maybe), anyway. No book sales happening there!

Being out in the community could lead to many other things, bigger things, who knows? Wendy Williams, who owns the cafe was willing to give me a chance to do this, and is helping with letting people know about it, so I’m going to give it my best shot!

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What to Write About?

carolyncordon

I have a few different blogs, as well as this one, each of them on their own main topic. I write mostly on this particular blog, that you’re reading right now, but if something comes to mind that more closely relates to one of those other blogs, that’s where the blog post goes.

Today the thing that attacted my brains interest was related to issues connected with my chronic illness, Multiple Sclerosis, and so that is where I put the blogging words I wrote earlier today. This is the link to that blog post, you may find it interesting.

And yesterday, I think it was or maybe the day before, Stoicism had captured my attention, and so I wrote a post for my blog about being, or strying to be a Stoic. This is that blog post, here.

When you’re a writer or poet, but also a blogger, you spread yourself around and hope to find people, or more correctly, that they find you. Having a few different blogs though, it is distracting me from actually working on my novel, is that a problem? Well, I don’t have any outside due date for this novel-in-progress, but I do have people who know about it, and they want to read that novel, so I guess I’d better leave off with those blogs for a while again, and get writing the novel!

But before that, lunch for Missy and me, and then I’ll have an hour or so for writing more of “Winds of Death At Talloola” before I head off somewhere else, and watch my husband playing lawn bowls at the Mallala Bowling club, and perhaps come up with some more ideas for this novel, or the “At Talloola” series … Talloola isn’t Mallala, but the two towns are similar in terms of setting, for sure. I’m ‘writing what I know’. Mallala is the closest town to my home, and I’ve lived here longer than I’ve lived anywhere else. Mallala is my town …

So I write about what I know, things that pique my interest, personal things I want to explore a bit more, ideas, notions, possible poems. Life, that’s the best thing to write about, we all have a life, and we know more about our life, and care more about it than anything else, so Life is a great subject to write about!

We all have differences in our lives, different ways of looking at the things in our lives, and writers could all write about say sport, and come up with completely different books. Playing it, watching it, loving it, hating it, betting on it, killing people over it even, many ways of looking at sport, and so many sports. I doubt anyone has ever been killed over a game of lawn bowls, but who knows … It would make for an interesting story!

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Finding Your Way

carolyncordon

If you feel there is a Creative something bubbling away inside of you, but you don’t know how or what that creative form may be, don’t stress or strain about it. Calm down, settle down, give yourself some room!

Relaxing your way to personal knowledge, resting, relaxing, Playing even, these can help you see what you truly enjoy, what lights your fires of creativity. For some it may be music, others painting, some sculpture, others still creating wonderful food, or decors.

For me it’s playing with words, poetry, short stories, this novel I’m writing, and yes, blogging. Writing blog posts are a way to explore ideas, and knowing there are some people ‘out there’ who see what I’ve done is great feedback!

Trees reach high to find more sunshine, moving with the wind, providing perches for birds, they find thier best way by going with, not against that wind, and they allow those birds to roost on their branches, and benefit from the bird poop/fertiliser. Reaching high happens coincidently, they don’t stress or strain over it, it’s just what they do.

So don’t you stress or strain over it either, do things, try things, rest and relax, try things, and you’ll find the thing that best works for you! Not a painter, why not try sculpture. Not a poet, how about writing prose instead, Try things out, and if they don’t go well, hey, just try something else, don’t strain over it, calm down and have fun.

Life is for living and enjoying yourself. Work is just to pay the way to have a good and creative time!