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.
inspiration, meaning in life, writing exercise

Things A Writer May Need

carolyncordon

A Writer needs many things, many of them things everyone needs, food, shelter. income, ability to communicate. But a writer also needs a particular ability to write, and also ideas to write about. They need a curiosity about things too, if they are going to remain committed to their life as a writer.

Writing can be a lonesome business, just you and the black page/screen. And a need to fill them with words. If you don’t actually write, can you call yourself a writer? Or are you a ‘gunna’ because one day, you’re gunna write this, or that, but not yet, because this and that reasons.

Once a previous gunna actually begins getting their words written, they often realise the beauty of actually writing, and they’ll wonder why it took them so long to start. But one of the reasons some of them quit is because they never feel the thrill of getting the best words written in the best possible way, and they feel like failures, and go somewhere else for their interests in life.

But if writing is the thing that wakes up your creativity and joy in life, go for it, be creative, explore what you like to write, and what you feel you’re best at writing. Put your thoughts to the test, and share your words with others to see if others agree.

Look for inspiration everywhere you go, take not of any interesting things you see, or hear, or learn, and think about how you could use those ‘found’ interesting things, to add even more interest to your writing. If other people are interested too, cherish those people, they are your potential readers of your words, buyers of your books, listeners to your talks, and followers of your blog!

But not everyone will like what you write, so as a writer, you need a thick skin, and the ability to step away from any hurt caused by negative words and responses to what you do with words. Not every book will be loved by every person, and that doesn’t matter. We are all different, in what we like, and do. That means there’s less of a crowd, which makes it easier for you to step up and shine!

So share your words, grow a hide, be curious, get on with living your life, and write your words!

covid 19, New Ideas

Scrabbling for Comments

carolyncordon

Hmm, I was expecting, or at least hoping, to have gained some kind of response from others, in relation to my previous blog post. I know, or at least thought, that Scrabble is a game much loved by wordsmiths … I certainly enjoy playing Scrabble, with its focus on words, placed strategically, surely those are skills of writers!

A large vocabulary is a benefit to both writers and Scrabble players. But knowing words, without having the strategic smarts to place them for maximum scoring options, or having the misfortune to just get useless letters, can lead to bad/losing scores in games, as I well know.

Anyway, even though I posted a poem, with zero responses to it, that won’t stop me writing poetry. I am my first reader of my won poetry, and I am the reader I must satisfy first, before my poems go any further.

And I enjoy writing blog posts too, and having one or two, or ten or twelve readers (or more) of my blog posts is a satisfying thing. I read of bloggers with thousands of readers, and followers, but if I am able to connect, fully connect with few others, I am happy those followers are people of quality, who are, or become my friends, whether or not we will ever actually connect in real life.

I have various fun ways to get my words ‘out there’ another favourite of mine is in being Editor of the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle, the monthly newsletter I put together then have printed, and then pick up and distribute around Mallala and beyond. I also put it up online on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/40710

And of course, I’m still putting together the “Plague Invasion” anthology, and I’m thrilled with the quality of works I’ve received in response to my request for submissions. See more about that here: https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/carolyncordonwriter.wordpress.com/2018

inspiration, New Ideas, writing exercise, writing prompts

Scrabble Inspiration

carolyncordon
Today’s Scrabble game 20 June 2020

My husband (Graham) and I have been playing Scrabble every day or so lately, and while we had almost finished the game in the photo, I had an idea. I often have ideas, some of them big ones, others not so big. Some fun things, some serious ones.

Anyway, I was looking at the various words on the Scrabble board, and thought about what an interesting mix of words we had there. That thought led to the almost inevitable idea of, why don’t I do something with that random mix of words, something fun, for me, and for my writing friends. My writing group and the radio station I’m involved with, have fun with five word challenges, to come up with a winning piece of writing, to win a bottle of wine (for the writing group) or to simply have your words read by someone involved with the PBA FM ‘Words Out Loud’ radio program.

Anyway, my idea is this –

Look at the Scrabble Board, and write something, using as many of these words as possible (perhaps aim at having at least twelve of the words in your piece of writing). Poetry or Prose, Sensible or Silly, Fact or Fiction, go for it! If you write something that leads to an award winning story, or film, please remember where the initial idea came from, and mention my name!

With the blank tiles, one of them is simple – it is a ‘u’ (aqua) and the other is not so simple, it is an ‘e’. You can use the words as they are on the board, or with ‘s’ or ‘ing’ added or removed if you wish , but perhaps no other changes that can’t have been actual words possibly scored for this game. There are a number of ways you may wish to go with this idea. Perhaps you might try writing a piece using only words that are on the board (a very, very short piece of flash fiction). Or you may wish to write something using words from the Scrabble board, but other words as needed, as well. Up to you, of course!

If you enjoy this little writing exercise, please let me know, and I may do it all again, after another game. Graham and I know lots of words, about many, many different things. Some of the words may have been new to one or other of us, and learning new words is always a good thing to come from a good and interesting game of Scrabble!

I’m not saying who won this game, but as far as I can see, on looking back at the scores we have, this game had the highest score for one of the two players, so far. Scrabble is a fun game, and really rewards players who are readers, and who have a wide range of subjects they read about.

I’m going to write a very short piece, using other words as well, and post it in the comments. You might wish to do the same, up to you.

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I ended up with a poem, not a story, but it’s very much a story poem, a narrative poem, scaled right back … I’ve put the poem in the comments section.

covid 19, Cozy Mystery

Book Cover Design

carolyncordon

I had a talk with the person who is going to ‘do’ the front cover of the book (an anthology of Poetry and Prose in response to Covid-19), that I’ve been seeking submissions for. I told this person, Patrick, my ideas for a possible cover image, and he told me his ideas. Patrick listened to my idea, which was nice of him, but we both agreed his idea is better. He is going to put some things together to show me when they are ready.

Some of my earlier books, a wide variety …

I like the idea of getting people, especially young ones, interested in things I do. This Anthology is attracting lots of interest from a broad range of people. Patrick is a student, who is in between things at the moment, as many others are also. His mother is a member of my writing group, the Secretary, actually, and Janette is working on a piece of prose to go in the book, so they can perhaps workshop some ideas about what they’re doing.

So this is another step in the process of getting this book up and running, a necessary step. A good cover can make a book, and a bad cover, while not necessarily ‘breaking’ a book, it doesn’t help. Patrick’s idea for the cover, give hints about what readers might find within the pages of the book, teasing them a little. I like that idea!

It’s still quite a while before this book comes into the world, but there are lots of people waiting, and that has to be a good thing. I have high hopes for this Anthology, and if it’s successful, there’s no telling what may come next. Perhaps ‘next’ will be a stepping back to the series of Cosy Murder Mystery books I’d been working on, when the whole Covid-19 thing hit us, and those cute little village mysteries seemed too small a thing to spend my writing time on.

The “Plague Invasion” anthology is a much more important and worthy thing to be spending my time on. Once things are back under some kind of control though, the world may be looking for something lightweight, and my own head may feel better about getting back to my amateur detective, Meredith, and the little town of Talloola, where Meredith does her detective, with her worthy helpers.

Uncategorized, Writing

Considering Options …

carolyncordon

Having options, thinking about them, talking about them with others who’ve done the same kind of thing before, these are always good things to do, no matter how you feel about how things are going. But even if you think about it and discuss it, but stay with the same mindset, it’s still a good thing.

If the thing you are thinking about doing in the same way as usual, still seems like the easiest way, and especially if it already something you know how to do, and have done successfully in the past, then, that’s a good thing, isn’t it? I think so. And because I think how I’m looking at doing things a particular in the future, because they’ve worked in the past, then I’m staying with that.

Thinking about it is a good thing. Thinking is a good thing. Doing things the same way, always with never any further consideration about other methods, that isn’t a good thing at all. I’m a writer, I write things, and work to have them published, in various ways. I’ve self-published, I’ve been published by professional publishers. I’ve made money in both of these ways.

One of the methods is simpler in many ways, put together a collection of my poetry, send it to a poetry publisher and wait. Simple. Or write something else entirely, put it together into a book format, or as close as I can get to that, have a friend do illustrations, wait while they happen, put the illustrations into the proposed book, look at it, make it as good as i can, take it to the printer, work with them, get it printed.

I’ve used both of these methods. The ‘do it myself’ version was early on in my writing career, and it went so well, I went on to do two more books in a series, with another book being thought about, and will happen, at a later stage. This Covid-19 pause in our lives has slowed the progress on that, and so has the other project I’m working on, which is actually Covid-19 related.

Self-publishing means self-promoting as well, and at the moment, self-promoting for me is limited to doing things on Social Media, and I’m doing that, to some extent. I’m not selling thousands of books, constantly, but apart from my most recent outlay, I’m well in front with money going out and money coming in, for my self-publishing endeavours.

With my own books, I have very small print runs, so I don’t end up burdened with lots of boxes filled with thousands of books. Instead, I order a hundred if I have a bigger event to attend, and fifty if I’m only ‘topping up’ what I have left. I usually have copies of my books with me if I go out anywhere I might have an opportunity to find a book buyer. In my self-published books, I cover a range of topics, from serious, to amusing – sexual abuse, chronic illness, and most recently, my broken ankle at the serious side, to various angles on dogs being dogs, at the amusing side.

In my published by trade publishers, I have a children’s school reader, and two poetry collections, one about the animals I come across in my life, the most recent, about my broken ankle. Both of these books are available from me, and from Ginninderra Press.

So given that my books are ‘out there’ and available, and bearing in mind that my printer of choice is in a town I visit at least once a week, I am extremely content with my chosen path with my self-publishing endeavours, and with Ginninderra Press, with the two books of mine they have published – Tense and Still, and Angles on Ankles.

But talking with my friend the other day about some of these issues was a pleasant lunch time meeting up, with lovely food bought from a sweet little cafe in a lovely town not too far away from my home. Freeling was the town, and even though I live relatively close to that town, I certainly don’t know it very well. I saw more of it than I have at any other time, mostly because I forgot to bring my mobile phone, and neglected to check the details of my friend’s address.

I thought I knew her address, but even though I had the street name correct, I got the number wrong initially, I had remembered to bring my laptop with me so was able to check the correct number and I found her place then. All was well. Getting the address correct is a good thing, if you need to find where you want to go!

The road I was looking for is the main road in Freeling, Hanson Road, and because it’s the main road, there are no signs telling the ignorant visitor that is the road they’re driving on. So even though I was moderately confident I was on the ‘right track’, it was still a little unnerving to be out without my phone and a little bit unsure of where I was and where I was going … Not lost, but unnerved for sure. It all turned out fine though.

Have you ever had that kind of experience? I actually knocked on a couple of doors, to perhaps get some help, but no-one answered my knocking. I’m glad that didn’t matter. Why not tell me your horror ‘lost’ story, I’d love to commiserate with you!