Category: New Ideas

inspiration, meaning in life, New Ideas

Writing Inspiration – Accidental or Formal

carolyncordon

When you write creatively, you’re a writer. Many of us take a long tome to actually acknowledge this, and claim the title, but it’s true, if you write, you’re a writer. And if what you write is poetry, then guess what, you’re a poet. The words don’t have to be published, or even shared with anyone else. There are many writers and poets who have many written words tucked away, hidden from the world that may be desperate to read those words, without realising, as you don’t realise it either.

So, there are many of us writers and poets. And of the many out there, what we all love is getting an inspiration, that lights the fire of our imagination and mind, and the words come. For some they feel they need that inspiration to come from something within themselves, or from Nature, or some such thing. Others feel fine using writing exercises, and things such as a five word challenge can be their inspiration.

Or an inspiration can be a happy accident, where two different things come together, adding up to, not two, but fifteen, and something far greater than the sum of its parts has emerged. Certainly, I feel my current writing adventure was one of those happy accidents, where a phrase, and an idea have come together, and an Anthology is on its way to coming into the world.

I enjoy five word challenges too though, and am finding that the more often I do them, the better I get at doing them. I know many of my writing friends enjoy doing five word challenges, because members of writing groups I’m involved in do them, and produce marvellous pieces of writing with them.

Nature, though, Nature is my biggest inspiration, in my life, and in my writing. My usual writing position at home, during the day, gives me a window into Nature, with flowers, trees, creatures, and the sky all bringing me peace, ideas, and conflict too, sometimes – all inspirational.

My front yard inspiration

Today I was watching an ant. It was in my back yard, I was standing watching the goings on in and around some ant nests, and one ant was carrying something, so I decided to watch where it would take it. WE often think of ants as being purposeful workers, but this ant wandered around one tiny area, about 30cm x 30cm, carrying that burden over difficult areas, backwards forwards, over and under weeds, toward a next hole and away, back again. Then I looked away and the ant was gone!

Well the ant of course could have still been there, because there were ants all around the nests, but I couldn’t see one carrying that piece of whatever it was. And of course, to me, all of the ants around that nest look exactly the same. I was only able to see that particular ant because of the ‘whatever it was’ it had been carrying. So, burden gone, interest gone? No not really – the idea of carrying a burden, a thing, giving one a sense of purpose is definitely an interesting idea to write about, in many ways.

What could it mean to the one with the burden, or to be burdened and to put it down, and go back to normal life. Does carrying, or having a possession make you more important than others, or give you a sense of purpose? These ideas could certainly be inspirations for many kinds of writing.

Inspiration is the thing that takes our writing from ordinary, to something more, something greater, from the mundane to meaningful and perhaps magnificent. Use the world as your inspiration and look with eyes, and mind, and all of your other senses, if need be. Inspiration fed gives much to the writer, seek it, feed it, benefit from it. The world needs your words!

covid 19, New Ideas

Responding to Change

carolyncordon

From child to adult, from single to married, from childless to raising a family. Further, not having a job, to being a worker, and from worker to retired person, and many nuances of life in between. On a more ‘right now’ basis, there is not having a dangerous virus to stay safe from, to being here, now, with Covid-19 threatening our lives, our livelihoods, and our lifestyles.

These changes are what I am hoping to capture, with the anthology I am editing, and looking for submissions to. The title for the anthology is ‘Plague Invasion’, with the subtitle of ‘Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19’. In the book are poetry and prose responses to this odd, weird new way of being.

The closing date for submissions is 31 July 2020. but it may have enough words in the book before then. I’m hoping for a good sized book, whatever that means – more than 70,000 words for sure, and up to, I’d say 140,000 words, although that higher number seems a little overly optimistic, but who knows …

I’m asking for up to three poems of up to thirty lines, and had previously been asking for 2,000 words of prose in up to three different pieces, but thinking about that word count, I’ve decided to raise it to 3,000 words. This will assist a couple of contributors, who have written more, great words about the theme, and it will assist in raising the overall word count for the anthology. I like the way this stays with the overall number ‘three’ in there too.

Photo by Nacho Lledò from Pexels

And to be brutally honest, I’m one of the contributors who would have to cut some of the word count of one of my submissions to this project, and I can’t see how to do that, without making one of my prose pieces a lesser thing.

If that is selfish, so be it. This is my project, opened up to others, for sure, but still mine. The more words that are in there, and the better the quality and wider the range of works there, the better it will display responses to the time we’re currently living in.

Responding to change is how we can grow in our lives. Things happen, we react, and we learn now and hopefully better ways. If they turn out not to be better, then we change again, holding onto the best, and moving forward with the new. So 3,000 words for your prose, not 2,000 in total. Editing is a good thing when you write, but sometimes the editing process takes out needed things, and that is bad.

If you’d like to be involved in this project, send your words to me at kittycordo@gmail.com with the subject of ‘Plague Invasion submission’. All contributors who have work chosen will receive a free copy of the book. Australian residents will have their copy posted to them free of charge, others will need to pay the postage and handling costs. Thank you!

New Ideas

Anthology Ponderings …

carolyncordon

Pondering on various things, including, in particular, possibility of payment to contributors to a book I am creating … I have an amount of money put aside for the creation of this book. If I pay people who send me their work, I may not be able to afford to send a copy of this book to each person who had a submission accepted, at cost price of the book. This is a thing I’ve indicated on this blog, to be what I will do.
*On further consideration, and an investigation of my finances, I can say I will be sending a copy of this book to every contributor for free, and will send copies to contributors in other countries, not Australia, for the cost of postage.*

At the moment, money is not a huge worry, so I won’t be left bereft, homeless and starving, that’s for sure. I will be able to pay to have this book printed, once it is all put together, I’m confident of that, as I am confident I am capable of putting this anthology together, in a way that will seem to be reasonable. The set out of the book is sensible and will look ‘proper’ for what it its.

Destitute?

And at this stage, I don’t know how big that book will be, so don’t know what the cost price may be … Hmm, decisions, decisions … What I am going to do though is to have each contributor sign an agreement so that they know exactly what they will be getting in exchange for allowing me to use their work, in this anthology I am currently working on.

Clarity is important, I certainly would never want to rip off other writers and poets! There’s more to this book making thing than I first anticipated … Self publishing my own books, using my own words, is much easier! But this is a much bigger thing than my own little books. This involves other people, and their words, and it involves a huge thing that has happened to us all, in many ways …

I had originally advised that I would offer a copy at cost price to all contributors who have their work accepted for publication in this anthology, plus postage and handling. I still think that is a good way to go. Turning words on a computer into books in bookcases takes money, and effort on the part of the publisher/editor, much more work than one might think.

I may end up sending out copies of books to contributors in Australia on receipt of just the cost price, but not contributors in other countries, perhaps, with postage being sometimes very expensive. Or maybe not. Because, of course, with this current lock down time, I’m not spending much money, because I’m not going off to the hotel at least once a week for my writing group meeting, where I often have coffee and something to eat too …

‘something to eat …’

So Miss Moneybags that I am, maybe I can afford to pay for all of this, and if there is any money to be made, it might be from further sales of books, once book launches and book talks can begin happening again. Making money isn’t a major thing, for this book in particular, getting the words out, the various ideas and ways people have about it all, that is the important thing. Because this book isn’t a small thing, this book will be an important historical tome of this strange Covid-19 age …

note, as above – *On further consideration, and an investigation of my finances, I can say I will be sending a copy of this book to every contributor for free, and will send copies to contributors in other countries, not Australia, for the cost of postage.*

If anyone wishes to offer any ideas or advice about this, I’m all ears!

inspiration, New Ideas

Small Town To Global

carolyncordon

I’m a writer, and I am most famous for being the Editor of a newsletter, that is distributed around the small town I live near. I live in a ‘township’, where there are no shops, only houses, with a hairdresser, who works out of a caravan at her home.

I love my township, and I love the town of Mallala. I once worked at a job at the Mallala Council, as it was then, now Adelaide Plains Council. Mallala is a town with only around 500 people living in , or close to it. So when I say ‘famous’ it’s nowhere near mega big time famous …

But I like what I do, I like the people I work on the Newsletter with. The Mallala Crossroad Chronicle is available on Facebook, where interested people can see it in colour, whereas the copy that goes around town, and other places, is in black and white. People tell me it’s the words that matter the most, not any fancy colour, which is good to hear.

The Mallala War Memorial, commemorating the men from the district who died in World War One.

So, I’m a small town gal, but I had a big idea, and I’m giving my all (almost), to that idea, because it feels like the biggest and most important thing to do right now. The world is suffering, people are dying, and there is no cure for what ails them, beyond using a ventilator, to try to keep affected people breathing artificially. This doesn’t always work …

With such a global issue, there are a variety of stories from people about how they are managing, what is their own situation, and whether they are coping with being in Lock Down. I’m doing well enough, staying at home and rarely going out is quite common for writers without any other job.

The volunteer work I do to get the Crossroad Chronicle printed is largely done via email, with a drive once a month, to pick up printed copies, for distribution. And no that we’re in a Covid-19 world, my writing group is now meeting online, on the usual meeting day, once a week. That is working well, but it’s not the same as meeting up with other group members, who have all become friends …

So I’m mostly stuck at home, living well enough, but seeing the hardships of others, and the illness and the deaths. I was feeling like I should do something, but what? This is the biggest thing in the world happening, so many people, so many different stories each of us have. What could I do?

The view from my most common writing spot at home, on the sofa, laptop on my lap

And I had a great idea, and immediately began working to get my idea happening. What could I do? I could gather stories, and edit them into an Anthology! Because I’m a writer, and an editor of the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle, I felt I could definitely do this. So, I have this blog, I have many writer friends from near and far This was an idea calling to me, and was something I had to do.

So I’m doing it! The anthology title came to be first, the phrase Plague Invasion. and from there, I began writing on this blog far more often, and not surprisingly, the number of visitors to my blog have increased, and the idea of this Anthology with the expanded title of “Plague Invasion – Responses to Covid-19” has gone out into the world, with a call for people to submit work to be considered for possible publication.

I’m a poet and writer, and can easily write fiction as sell as non fiction, poetry and prose. And that is what is needed for this anthology. I am requesting submission of up to three poems of up to thirty lines, and/or up to three pieces of prose of up to a total of 3,000 words, and I want them sent to this email address: kittycordo@gmail.com with the subject line of “Plague Invasion submission (your name)”
If you would like to know more about this you can either post a question in a comment here, or send an email to the same email address, subject line “Plague Invasion query (your name)”.

All contributors who have their work accepted will be able to buy a copy of the book at cost price plus postage and handling. And they will be able to buy further copies at half price normal price.

Together, we can produce a great piece of history, looking at how people managed to get through this plague. I’d like a wide range of responses, from serious to silly, and all things in between. Particular subjects of interest to me are medical opinions, political ones, sports, parents with children at home, teachers trying to teach with their students can’t be there, and many other ideas I haven’t even thought of yet.

So think about it, share the word with your friends, and send some great and interesting pieces of writing to me. We are living history, and I want the stories of how everyone, from ordinary person, to nurse or doctor, to community worker, to teacher, sporting person unable to play, keen sports watcher reduced to watching replays of games previously watched, and many other stories. Send them to me, I’ll consider them and this Anthology will emerge.

meaning in life, New Ideas

Sometimes Life Intrudes

carolyncordon

I had an idea, an excellent and caring idea, one that would, or at least could, bring hope and understanding to many others. It was an idea for a book, an Anthology, on a less than lovely thing, a virus, but with a lovely effect on those who will read the words within.

This idea is still with me, even though the fire in my mind has calmed somewhat. Life happened, and keeps on happening, and in this Covid-19 world, life keeping on is an excellent thing, isn’t it? The garden has been part of the reason for a slight step back, but it’s under control, and I’m back on board with this Anthology now.

Old photo, same garden, the plant is being supplanted, perhaps …

I have a number of submissions for this Anthology I am going to put together, and edit, which is great. But for an Anthology of note, which is what this Anthology may end up being, many more works, poetry or prose, or both, are needed. I have a vision of this book being at least 80 pages long, but at the moment, it is far fewer pages long than that.

I know there are people, friends, and others who intend submitting their work to me for this Anthology, so I’m sure it will easily get to 40 pages at least, but that is not a noteworthy length for such a subject, one that has captured us and held us prisoner, in many ways. Even those who are still able to work, do so with an altered sense on what is ‘safe’.

I would love to have a piece from a medical person, talking about how this virus has brought on changes to the way they do their work, or about how in many ways it has brought better awareness in others about the skills they have learnt in their working life, and how we all should apply those skills to our own lives, to keep safe, or at least safer …

I’d like to have something from a musician, writing about new ways of sharing their work with others, or teachers who have, or don’t have students at their school. Or what about all manner of workers, performing essential services, who are unable to be as close to those they love, without much vigorous cleaning of themselves, and their things that may have been infected as they work … I want these stories, and more.

Writing about this anthology, on this blog, and posting other blog posts, as thoughts occur to me on a variety of other subjects, these have brought more people to my blog, some of whom have liked my words, and made connections with me. I would love every one of those beautiful and thoughtful people to think about their life now, and how it is affected by Covid-19.

Every person in the world could have a new and different way of looking at this virus, what it means, where it came from, and what the future may bring in this changed post-Covid-19 world. Or is there actually a post-Covid-19 world possible? We don’t have a vaccination yet, though scientists and medical people are working on it. And even if there was a vaccination, would enough people have that vaccination?

I’d love to receive pieces on and around these issues. And what about those who love conspiracies, why not write something about how it was all done on purpose by the Chinese government, to bring down America, or by America to bring down the Chinese, or whatever other permutations there may be. This Anthology should cover those issues too, so it brings further discussion into the subject.

So, please, this is what I’m looking for – poetry or prose, unpublished or published (as long as you hold the copyright). Up to three poems of thirty lines or fewer, or up to three prose pieces of up to 2,000 words (combined), that’s what I’m after, anything at all in response to ‘Covid-19’. If I like it and it meets the guidelines regarding length, you’re in!

So submit to kittycordo@gmail.com with the subject line of ‘Plague Invasion submission (and your name)’. Of if you’d like to know more about this, send an email with the subject line of ‘Plague Invasion query (and your name)’. Or you could ask a question in the comments section below. I check my comments regularly, and will respond as soon as possible.

That’s it, think about it, send it in. You won’t get a free copy, but if your work is accepted, you will receive a copy at cost price, plus postage and handling, and if you require further copies, they will be available to you at half price. Making lots of money is not my aim with this book, spreading knowledge and ideas is the aim.

I look forward to reading your words!