Category: writing prompts

New Ideas, poetry, Public Speaker, Writing, writing prompts

Stand Up, Sit Down and Write, Move, & Write Some More!

carolyncordon

The title is a list of what I do, or want to do in my life. My Stand Up career is not actually a thing I’ve ever done for money, so not a career at all, not yet anyway.

This image is of me, getting in touch with the character I ‘am’ when I do my Stand Up Comedy act. Her name is Nanna Carreau, she’s considerably older than I am (twenty years or more) and I love acting as her, it’s so much fun to think about what she thinks about things, and to ‘be her’ sometimes, and making peopl laugh when I do it!

My Writing ‘career’ though, that is something I do make at least some money from. Not enough pay our household’s bills, but at least enough to be able to pay for my coffee and meals when I go out. Book sales, and an annual Government payment cover that …

That Government payment is called the Educational Lending Right, and is a payment to writers who have a book in a school library. It’s a fine payment, I love it, I write the book, do the necessarly things, and it goes on this program, to be looked at every year, and paying out the relevant amount to me, straight into my bank account! Money for nothing, to some extent because books in libraries can last for more than one year, so those books will bring in the money for more than just one year – Bonus!

If I were to tout myself as an interesting Puublic Speaker, talking about my books and a variety of other important things in my life, that would be a good money-making option for sure. I haven’t done that much at all though, and while I have in fact done that, it’s mostly been when doing presentations with my writng group, where I have a voluntary position as the President, and as the group is a not-for-profit group, members are unable to be paid.

When I’m doing that kind of thing, I make sure I look far better than do when ‘being’ old grumpy bum Nanna Carreau!

So what’s next? Ah, Move … The image shows my canine walking partner, Lenny. He’s our dog, and my husband and I walk him at least five times a week. We don’t cover as much distance as Lenny would have walked or run as a racing Greyhound, but it’s usually more than one kilometre. And doing the things good dog ownes need to do means more moving.

And I like getting outside regularly to be with nature to look at the sky as well as our trees and other plants, and other trees, crops, and other people’s gardens when I go for a walk. I’m usually looking at the birds out and about as well, I’m an interested bird watcher for sure.

And seeing things that interest me can give me ideas to write about, and I in fact have written poems that have then been published. Having my poetry in books, whether self-published or published by others, well that’s a good thing, for a writer!

Nature, Life, and Thinking About It All gives me plenty to write about, and I love it! If you enjoyed reading this blogpost, why not have a look at what else I’ve written?!

Thanks, maybe you have your own things in your life you’d like to tell us all about, if so, leave a comment!

inspiration, poetic forms, poetry, writing exercise, writing prompts

A Sonnet Response

carolyncordon

I like writing prompts, a lot. So when I saw this challenge, ‘EIF Poetry Challenge’ I gave it a good look. Sonnets are lovely. With a sonnet, you know what you’ve taken on. There will be only 14 lines, with a set number of ‘beats’ in set places, and there will be a rhyming scheme of a particular kind (one of two, actually, but not terribly different from each other.

So, the call for a sonnet, how could I resist? The person calling for sonnets is someone I know, as much as one ‘knows’ people online. She had got on board with something I’m working on, and so adding all of this together, of course I’d get a sonnet into the action.

When I got myself ready for this EIF Poetry Challenge, I’d intended looking into a sonnet I might already have, but the keyboard called to me, and changed my mind. It was time to write a new sonnet. And so, in accordance with instructions, here is my sonnet.

Ideas!

I hadn’t necessarily meant to write a poem about Covid-19, but that’s the main thing these days, isn’t it? And that’s the way it went, but with a possibly different slant on it, and bringing another ‘big thing’ into the action. A thing that may or may not be connected.

This is my new sonnet:

No Decent Reason …
What on Earth is the reason, for this disease?
A rhetorical question, but is there a ready answer?
Is it response for doing whatever we please?
Have we become Nature’s deadliest cancer?

We’re killing things with barely any restraint –
With no regard for damage that we’ve caused,
Murdering creatures – no avenue for complaint
Wanting things right now. If only we’d paused …

Covid-19 a symptom of devastations,
Inflicted on habitats, trees cut down.
Some put all the blame on developing nations,
But the destroyer here is the big end of town …

How do you explain to a little kid,
The selfish reasons for what us oldies did …

inspiration, New Ideas, Writing, writing prompts

Thoughts? Or Writing Ideas?

carolyncordon

Promises are dreams whose time is yet to arrive.

If it is said, that doesn’t mean it can be done. Or does it?

Celebrations – a person is born, another person dies.

Cloudy skies may bring rain, rain brings life to plants, and death too, to some.

If all dreams came true, that would create a crazy mixed up life wound up with paradoxes.

One hair. It can mean and do so many things. How many can you think of?

Flowers, beautiful, yes? But in picking them, we hasten their death.

A hound running free is a beautiful sight. Unless it’s your dog, and it’s supposed to be inside.

So many great inventions can lead to death of the user. Why don’t we ban inventions?

Should dumb people be required to be treated with extra kindness, or laughed at?

If you found that previous one offensive, write about the reason/s why.

How many items in the image can you name?

If you can name them, what would you do with them, in a piece of writing?

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I came up with this semi-random set of writing prompts today, and if I ever run out of things to write about, I know I can look at this list, and there will be something to write about. Surely if I can do this in about half an hour, which includes the time it took to prepare my lunch of bits and pieces that are in that bowl, then I can always finbd things to write about.

If I can do this, can you do it too? How do you find things to write about? Do you struggle with that idea, or is it easy? I’d love to know your answer to the question, please leave your answer in the comments!

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.

New Ideas, writing prompts

Considering Changes To Come …

carolyncordon

These Lock Down times are leading many, many of us to think hard about what we are doing, and ways we could be doing it better. We may be stressing about things, worried about our health, and health of others. We may be having to work and not liking to, or working and wishing we weren’t.

Times at the moment are different for all of us in Western Nations. Things are scaled back, and we are missing out on many things. Some of those things, we may have realised, weren’t as necessary as we’d thought, and we’re learning to manage in other ways. Other things may still feel necessary, and we feel we’re missing out, because we can’t get them.

It may be a time to look at how our pets manage their days. I look at my dog, and from what I’ve seen, her life is more or less the same as it was before Covid-19 came into our lives. The main difference, is that my husband and I are home even more than we were previously. We are both retired from work though, so that’s not that surprising.

At this time of year, my husband would usually be out all afternoon on a Saturday, playing Lawn Bowls, and I would be out on Thursday afternoon at my writing group. We are both now home, instead. And from a dog’s point of view, having the humans at home is always a good thing. Humans mean pats, and food, and the door opened to go out, and then to come back in again.

Missy isn’t that keen on her new ‘friend’, we think it’s cute though!

There will be a time though, when sports happen again, and catching up to have a meeting in a hotel will be allowed. My writing group have been meeting online, and have discovered some interesting differences in how we do our meetings when together in person, rather than together online, some of which are better. There are some troublesome aspects of the online meeting, though, or if not troublesome, then definitely very different.

One thing I feel many of us are missing though, the friendly touches, the hugs, the pat on the shoulder, the smiles and the silly things. You can’t do these things in a virtual world. And if you can’t see each other, you miss out on many nuances of what is happening in a conversation.

Shopping, that’s been a strange thing too. Having supermarkets run out of necessary goods, that was definitely a new, and very much unwanted thing. Will 2020 be remembered as the year we ran out of toilet paper, and couldn’t get any more?

Some of my ‘stash’

My feelings about this time, are that many of use realised the importance of being together with friends, and looking out for each other. And it’s been a time of valuing and appreciating the small things others do for us, when they can. Life is different, and in some ways, the new way of things is better, less impatient, more forgiving, more thoughtful. I think time spent ‘locked in’ at home, without a job to go to, has given us both permission and time, to finally do things we’ve wanted to try in the past, but couldn’t.

Being able to finally do these things, is definitely a positive thing. Personally, I have begun working on an Anthology, based around the creative writing responses of writers to “Covid-19”. It feel as though this time has been waiting for me to do something big, and I feel like I must do this. At the moment, I have only only ten or so pieces for this Anthology, but I can feel there is a great upswell of thoughts and ideas, creative writing, that can, and will fill, the pages of this Anthology.

As soon as I came up with the title, I know I had to do this. “Plague Invasion” was the phrase that hit me, and I’ve now taken it up as definitely the title of my new word-related thing. I’ve since expanded the title to “Plague Invasion – Creative Writing in Response to Covid-19”, to make it clear what the work is all about. But the responses I’ve received so far, and my own written responses, are different, as our lives and responses to these times are also different.

I’ve read comments that these times are an introvert’s version of perfect times, and an extrovert’s version of hell, and I suppose there’s truth to that idea, but introverts don’t hate people, most of them, they just like alone time, more than extroverts do. Extroverts like to talk, to discuss things, all things, and to get ides from others and what is happening all around them. These, of course are generalisations, as is my thought that introverts are more like cats, and extroverts dogs, particularly happy bouncing ones, bounding constantly from one thing to the next.

Cats would be troubled perhaps by having so many people in the house, when they were used to many ‘alone’ times, and dogs happy to have their humans with them so much more … When (if) things change, who will be grateful for the change, and will things actually to back to how they were before, I wonder? What caused this? Could it have been stopped? Is mankind in some way to blame, or at least a little complicit. These are questions that will go on being considered, written about, and discussed for a long time. That’s what I think.

And for those who feel these current troubles have hidden away concerns about Global Climate change, I suspect the two things are far more connected than many realise, and those things that tie the two together will be subject to many more discussions and ideas. Times are achanging that’s for sure, can they ever really go back to how they were? And if they can, who really wants that? Do you? I don’t, not entirely. We have the chance to hold onto what we’re now learning about ourselves, and the world and new and better futures for ourselves and our planet. Are you up for the challenge of it?