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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Thoughts About ‘Not Working’ – Saturdays

carolyncordon
Saturday both loses and gains, when you no longer have a full time job. You don’t have the excitement of not having to drag yourself out of bed to commute to somewhere away from your home, to work hard for somebody else, doing things that may not be high in your list of great things in your life, then there’s the sometimes tedious commute back home and busily working at home to keep everything neat enough, and everyone there fed.
Saturday comes along, you can sleep in – luxurious! You’re more in charge of your tasks for the day, and can do things more in tune with what you really want to do (hopefully). You can loaf around, or get stuck into the projects that make your heart and mind sing. And so on.
photo of woman in white tank top lying on bed
Photo by bruce mars on Pexels.com
When you retire from paid work, the demarkation between weekend and working week is more or less gone for you, you can sleep in and loaf around any, or every day, if you wish. But if you do that, you may lose any actual sense of purpose, if you’re not careful.
For some, their sport gives them that sense of purpose, and you can give your all to your preferred game on Saturday. Or if sport isn’t you ‘thing’ there are many other hobbies you can get stuck into on Saturday, working hard at what you love to do, and still have time for that sleep in, if wanted, because you’re more likely to be doing ‘your thing’ closer to home than a paid job might be.
If you have are a writer, as I am, you may have deadlines, editors waiting on your next book, things you have to do to promote your previous book written, and these things may have to be done on days of the weekend, possibly a Saturday …
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(authors own photo)
But of course, that Saturday work can bring in book sales, or payment for workshops or other promotional duties. Book signings and sales, what happy work that can be, connecting with your readers!
Freelance writing, which can feel like not really working at all, because you’re doing what you love doing the most in life, you’re writing because you love it, not because your a paid writer.
For many writers, the money earnt is far less, than what they would ever be paid in a full time job, working for someone, or something, else. Working for ‘the man’. But doing what they love makes it all worthwhile for them, despite the lower earnings.
If you’re a freelance writer, writing a book with or without a publisher waiting for you to finish, Saturday may come and go, with you barely noticing, because that book you’re busily bringing into the world is the most important thing in your head.
You might find your characters intrude in every quiet moment you have, demanding you stop what you’re ‘supposed to’ be doing, and even if you were going to give yourself a break on a Saturday, after working hard on that novel, or whatever, during the working week, your characters demand you get back to work.
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Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  book promotionĀ  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā when ideas and characters intrude
Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  (author’s photos)
So on Saturday you may not have time for the normal ‘Saturday’ things, sports, or other hobby stuff, not when that book demands you put your focus into that.
And of course, for many people Saturday is when they have the time to do the shopping for the household. But when your weekdays are free from having to go to work, you can go and do the shopping on whichever day you want to.
You’ll find it far easier, and less stressful, with more and closer car parks available to you. There will be fewer people in the shops, so once you have all you need, you will get served more promptly, at the checkout.
Quicker, easier, but sometimes the shops may not be as well stocked as they may be on the busier of Saturday, depending on what time you do your big shop. Decisions, decisions, if you’re a writer, you can look at the realities and make your own choices. Shop on Saturday, or another day, it’s up to you!
So being a writer, whether to do a ‘working day’ and ‘weekend day’ or not, is up to you, and maybe your bank balance – you are a writer, you write, words are your tools for work, and the things you love the most, writing, shaping the words, making sense of life, and putting it, ultimately onto a page for others to read.
I say, rejoice in your choice, whatever it is!

 

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Fab Feb Writing Prompts – Day Eight

carolyncordon

Is there a reason for everything that happens, Iā€™m wondering. Sometimes things just happen, like it or not, and all you can do, is try to find the good in what has happened, and deal with it as best you can.

Whatever the answer is to the question, is there ever a better word, for the parent of an endlessly enquiring child, than ā€œBecause ā€¦ā€ Because it just is, because I said so, because itā€™s the rule, the law, the govenment says so. Because.

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(Mallala Mayor Mark Wasley, local government on Australia Day, small government in action)

And if we remember our own childhood, how frustrating , yet exciting to have to go and find your own answers to your demanding questions. To find things out, to know that the stars come out at night, for reasons that are known, and that we too, can further study more about such things, and take our questions to university, and learn so many of the answers to the questions in our mind.

Sometimes, the questions are not always properly answered, but ignored by pressured parents with a cheatā€™s answer of ā€œjust becauseā€ or ā€œbecause I said soā€. Is that ever going to be a satisfying answer? No, and the answer of because, may become the very thing the questioner needs, to prompt them to look into it htmselves.Ā 

The satisfying knowledge that because x, then y, is satisfying knowledge, with it being a way to build up further knowledge, having a lifetime ā€˜Becausesā€™ as you live and experience new things. Every new idea, or journey, or task, can bring answers to questions ā€¦Ā 

The answers, the ā€˜becausesā€™, give you a sense of having a handle on life – as in, my dog likes to chase creatures, because she is a sight hound, and sight hounds like to chase and catch things, itā€™s in their genes.

 

MY BECAUSE POEM

Because we live, we will die

Because we love, we may sigh

Because we grieve, we will cry

Because we think, we question why ā€¦

 

So, the prompt for today, is Because – think on it, and come up with your own creative writing response. I wrote the little 4 line rhyming poem above, as an example, but I expect you will produce something much better than my own little effort, and I hope I can do something else, thatā€™s much better than that, too.

 

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Fab Feb Writing Prompts – Day Seven

carolyncordon

ā€œYesterday, all my troubles seemed so far awayā€, and so on and so on ā€¦ A song most of us have probably heard many times in the past ā€¦ Our own yesterdays can teach us or haunt us, enknowledge us or taunt us.Ā 

Writing about our pasts, exploring history, ours or that of others, can lead to interesting stories. If we refuse to look back to what has already happened, are we going to repeat mistakes of the past? Who can know the answer to that? Well historians can actually ā€¦

Historians or writers who arenā€™t afraid to look back behind to look at what has happened, and considering what it happened. Whether poet, fiction writer, or non-fiction writer, the past is a thing to write about, shape, put our own mark on what has happened in the past, using our thoughts and knowledge.Ā 

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We can also put a spin, or twist on actual history, change things, such as considering/imagining, what may have happened, if say Hitlerā€™s Germany won WW2 ā€¦ Life now would be very different to how it actaully is.

Writers have the power to change these things, write about them, imagine alternate pasts, with different nows. If this kind of writing interests you, go for it, in poetry or prose, and imagine possible present times, and futures, based on alternate pasts ā€¦ Australian writer John Birmingham is one I know who likes to consider different results from different pasts, and does them well.Ā 

Or you can look at memoir, instead, and write actual real things that have happened to you. All of us have life stories, and at the moment, memoir is popular, we all like to watch other people, and reading memoir is a legitimate way of watching. If you consider you have lived a like and found useful and interesting things happened to you, write about it. Nobody know your story better than you know it.Ā 

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Who are, and what youā€™ve done, can be fascinating to others, write about it, poetry or prose, and bring your past to life, by telling about it, bringing your learned wisdom into your story.

So today is your chance to do a retrospective on your life, look back to consider and reconsider, tell your truth, explore ideas, find answers, share what you know, with steps showing how you learnt them, perhaps.

Enjoy sharing your Yesterday, today! This is the day when YESTERDAY is the writing prompt.

writing prompts

Fab Feb Writing Prompts – Day Six

carolyncordon

Itā€™s an important word, ā€˜Afterā€™. After what? Afterwards, after dinner, after school is over, after youā€™ve left that job you hate, or been sacked from one you loved, after the divorce.Ā 

Today’s writing primpt is that word –Ā  Ā  Ā  After

There are so many things in life that come along after ā€¦ After you think about this new word prompt, I hope youā€™ll find some great ideas to write about! After this, that and the other …

After I realise I said something stupid, that can be an embarrassing thing, but sometimes looking at it and treating it with humour can halt the afterburn! Afterthoughts, oh the wisdom of our afterthoughts …

Further thoughts on what happens after – after the kids start school, move out of home, find someone they love, get married, have children. What about after we die – what happes then, and what will happen to us after we age and become frail ā€¦

Some of these things are good, some are not so good, some can be terrible. But theyā€™re all good things to think further on, and to write about. How about thinking about after the operation, after you move home, move to the country, or to the city?Ā 

Big things might happen after ā€¦ or maybe things stop happening after, and how might that feel?Ā 

So that’s today’s writing prompt, AFTER!

Cozy Mystery, Public Speaker

Excited About My Writing

carolyncordon

If a writer isn’t at least a little bit excited about their writing, is their really any reason to write? I’m talking about those of us who write for pleasure, rather than people who write reports for a living. People who do that could well still get a buzz out of writing a good report, but it may not live up to the huge boost of the writer who sells their first book.

Getting published is a huge rush of excitemnt for sure. Sharing our words with other, interested people, is a boost too, though, one that I definitely find exciting even after having done it for many years.

This writing prompt thing for all of February though, that’s something else entirely, sharing my love of words, and assisting other writers to come up with now ideas, brand new pieces of writing. Fabulous February I’ve been calling it, and I’m havng a good time with it, giving the writing prompt every morning, and then I’ve been using the new prompt myself to being a new piece of writing into the world!

Well eventually I will, if not straight away. When a poet is working to put together a poetry collection they need all of the inspiration and writing prompts they can find! And I am that poet, for sure. My poetry collection has a title, and it has some poems, it just needs more of them!

I’ve begun putting some of my brand new poems into the collection, and I’ve been thrilled at the way some of my new words fit in with the words already there. By the end of February, may there be at least twently more poems, to go wih other poems I have to include.

I’ve been looking through various places I have around the house with bags and folders, all with poems, pieces of writing that haven’t made it into anything yet, for one reason or another. Some of them where needing a little more work, others simply were misfiled, to be found later, perhaps edited a bit, made better, and woohoo, more poems to go into my new collection!

I also have a different writing project going on at the moment, and this is something I’ve been thinking about since last year, and was working on, but disaster struck, in the form of a broken ankle. This led to a brand new book, more poetry, this time a small collection, in the form of a chapbook, with 21 poems all about my broken ankle.

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So writing these poems was what I worked on from early October, until the book was published and launched in December. The book launch was certainly a good time, selling copies of my brand new book. But that excitement’s done now, time to go back to what I was working on, when my focus suddenly and painfully changed.

And what that project was, was the writing of a series of Cosy Murder Mysteries, all set in a fictictious town, which is modelled slightly on a town I know quite well. For this project I’ve used the same town and characters of something else I was working on last year, something that wasn’t working the way I’d hoped.

That other piece of writing wasn’t giving me a real buzz, not all of it. Working with the characters was good, exploring the town was, it was more that the genre of that book wasn’t working for me, it wasn’t something I read much myself, if at all. I wasn’t excited by it.

The idea of writing a series of Cosy Murder Mysteries, that certainly floats my boat! I can see myself in twenty years time, the beloved writer nearly fifteen mysteries in the ‘At Talloola’ Series with sleuth, Meredith Webster. I’ll be 76 then, and still working my way through my list of book titles, and I hope giving talks and workshops all around Australia, an internationally too. Haha, you gotta have a dream cos if you don’t have a dream, how’re gonna have your dream come true. (clumsily plagarised lined from that movie, you know the one)

Anyway, by then, Meredith will be living with her adviser in police matters, Travis, who by then will be the Mayor of Talloola, and Meredith will still be coordinating the town of Talloola, but as a retired lady of leisure … as well as still doing her samateur sluthing thing …

So that’s my career as a writer sorted out, and Meredith’s career as a fictional amateur sleuth sorted out too. There will be lots of things going on in my life and hers, “At Talloola”!