Tag: being a writer

inspiration, Writing

What is a Writer?

carolyncordon

A writer can be many things – a teller of stories, a truthsayer, an inspiration, a liar, an explainer, a teacher, a flirt, and many other things. There are many genres of writing, from poetry, to fairy stories, to crime fiction, to scientific jargon filled papers about things most of us have never even heard of. And of course the many millions of things in between.

Writers can say the things we’d like to say, but are too afraid of. They can also tell us why the things we’ve said are nasty and dangerous lies, and should never have been said. Writers pen their words, sometimes getting them published, if they can, to share with the world, sometimes (they say) just writing for themselves. Who am I to doubt them?

I can only go by how I feel about this, and I have to say that I certainly want my words to be read by others. If I was a writer for myself only, I wouldn’t be writing on a blog, like this, that can be read by anyone and everyone, if they happen to come across it. And I certainly hope many people to happen to come across this blog post, and go on to discover the others I’ve penned here, and on my other blogs.

I’ve been named as being an inspiration, for sure, and even though I humbly duck my head and blush at that, I wear the label with pride. Looking back at my life, there have been hard times – I’ve been a victim, but not anymore. I went from victim, to survivor, to striver, and now to thriver!

My life is one on hope, and action, and thought, writing things that may entertain, and yes, inspire others. Writing is what I do, I am a writer. I write poetry, prose, fiction, non fiction. My life, and what I see, hear, am told, and think about, these are all my writing prompts. Thoughts come from it all, and when the time is right, the writing comes too, at the right time. Most of the time, the right time is whenever I can sit down and write!

Writing, with green bling!

So what is a writer? A writer is anyone who writes, published or not, if you write, you are a writer!

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!

Writing

Why I Love Writing

carolyncordon

One of the reasons I really, really love being a writer, is the way an idea will suddenly burst out of my head, scattering metaphorical sparkling insight glitter over my day! It doesn’t happen every day, week, or even every month, but when it does, BANG my whole day is suddenly magical with the new idea!

I’m so thankful when these ideas come, and I try to make a note of them, so they don’t float away, like the clouds that promise rain, but take their precious moisture to somewhere else, and we miss out. I had an idea like this yesterday, and yes, I wrote it down, and I’m so glad I did.

The idea I wrote down is in relation to one of my writing projects, the biggest and most challenging idea I’ve had yet. This idea is the writing of a series of Cosy Murder Mysteries, many of them … This new idea I had today may mean a new book, when I already have titles and brief notes for nineteen different books … This is going to take me a long time to write, so I really should get started on writing the series, I think …

I don’t actually know if I’m going to write all of the books I have titles for, but I’m enjoying the whole idea of it, and I’ve written part of the first draft of the first two books. I feel like I’ve messed up a bit, though, and have to step away from the second book, and complete the first one, first, so I can set the tone for the entire series, but with hints and clues that there may be possible changes to come …

Moving from being a poet, to being a Cosy Murder Mystery writer isn’t that much of a change, words are the tools for both of these genre, and I’m a keen community member, and observer of people. The little town where these murder mysteries take place is a made up town, not a real one, but it bears a resemblance to another town I know quite well, not naming any names, though …

imag0250_1

The knowledge that I can go from poetry to murders, and enjoy them both, as well as the other things I write, non fiction, short stories, as well as blogging, what fun it is, keeping me connected with the literary world!

poetry, writing exercise

A Small Workshop

carolyncordon

I’m a writer, and like many other writers, I find a variety of ways to go, as a writer, beyond just writing books. I write poems, I write articles and blog posts, such as this one, and I also do writing workshops, sometimes paid ones, other times just for a community group perhaps.

This workshop is one I am going to be presenting at a group that meets regularly in Gawler, a town I spend a lot of time in, even though I don’t live there. Many of my friends live in Gawler, and my writing group meets every week, in a lovely, historic hotel in Gawler.

This workshop is happening at a community centre, not a hotel, but that’s still a good thing. Anyway, this is the Workshop, take a look and give it a go. Feel free to ask any questions you have about it, in the comments section.

 

Workshop – Loved Little Things

Writing simple little poems can be easy, if you scale back what you want to write, and just stick to closely watching one small aspect of something you love, or love doing. It may be a hobby, for instance knitting, and you could write about a favourite item of clothing you’ve knitted in your past.

Or it could be cooking, and you choose cake making as your topic, and perhaps write a poem about a kind of cake you like to make. I used to enjoy making muffins, and I’ve written about vegetable muffins in the past, I think. I was very ‘into’ vegetables, in a former line of volunteer work – I was a Community Foodie, teaching people about healthy eating, and cooking.

Nature is one of my favourite things to write poems about, and the poem I’ve got on my notes here today is about a little part of Nature, the ant. I used rhythm and rhyme in my poem, but that isn’t necessary, it’s up to you to choose your poetic style. Or if you’re not in a poetic mood today, any form of writing will be fine,

You might write a small note about your small thing, or perhaps write a letter to it, or about it. Any kind of writing will be fine. So take that small part of the thing you love, and insert yourself, and your thoughts and wondering into the piece of writing. Think about how you relate to, or gain joy from, your loved thing, and write about that.

This little poem was one I wrote last year, think it was, after seeing a line of ants on our front veranda, and then over the course of a few days, realising there was always a line of ants in exactly the same spot. I thought it was an interesting little thing. I am a poet, and as a poet, I find myself looking, seeing, and finding many little bits of not much, that can broaden out, and become something – a poem.

Make your small piece your own, make it quirky, make it cute, make it something you’re proud of, or something that makes you small to yourself. Just write it!

 

macro photo of five orange ants
Photo by Poranimm Athithawatthee on Pexels.com

Ant March

 

Ants are marching, tramp, tramp, tramp

Ants are busy, gathering food

Ants are climbing, up that ramp

Ants in an adventurous mood

 

Ants on the veranda, ants on the lawn

Ants are spreading all around

Ants near that sheep that’s just been shorn

Ants up a tree, ants on the ground

 

What are they up to, those little ants

Will they bite if they get the chance?

I’m going to keep myself well away,

We’ll meet up again, on another day!

 

My poem is a rhyming poem, with the first two verses using this rhyming scheme: abab, cdcd, with final verse eeff
Can you see what I mean there with the term ‘rhyming scheme’? The letters refer to the rhyming final word in each line, ‘a’ is the words tram and ramp, ‘b’ is the words food and mood. and so on. I hope that makes sense for you. And I hope you get some nice small poems about ‘Loved Little Things’!

 

 

Carolyn

 

Carolyn Cordon, writer, poet, blogger, newsletter editor

Writing

As A Writer, I …

carolyncordon

In my blog post before last, I wrote about the idea that what writers are simply people who write. Whatever genre or form they write in, if they write, then they are writers. I’ve been doing some research this morning (by research I mean – wandering around the internet). What this ‘research’ has made me think, or realise, is that people are strange, and they are normal, and they are wrong, and they are right, and that I am all of those things too.

access app application apps
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

I read a Facebook post, a random one, where someone posted a comment telling she had breast-fed her two children for twenty months each, and by her calculations, she had produced a particular number of litres of breast milk. This statistic seemed weird for a number of reasons, but there were other people on that Facebook page who didn’t seem to think what she’d written was odd.

So that got me thinking – if they didn’t think it odd, what right did I have to think it was? And then that got me thinking, hmm, I could write something about that, because I’m a writer, and having things to write about is one of the things I am always looking for. And that led me to the heading for this particular blog post “As A Writer …”.

Because as a writer, I sometimes do things that most other people may never think about doing. I look at things quite deeply, sometimes, with no other aim but to know more about it, and how it may affect an invisible person or thing that is in my head, ie a story character I have.

And as a writer I actively don’t want a full time job, because that would completely take away too much potential writing time. I know there are some writers who have full time jobs, people are different, I know that. And as a writer, I am thrilled that people are different, because that means I can make my characters do all kinds of different things, sometimes things I’ve never done, but want to know more about.

As a writer, it can be my job to find out about such things, find out for my characters, and for the story, or for an article or a blog post. That breast feeding mother I mentioned before had a job title that completely surprised me, and as a writer, I will probably look further into that job, and what it entails, well, I might do that anyway.

As a writer though, I may find some other eye-catching job title, and research that one instead. I have a novel I’m working on at the moment, and I can’t see how that snippet of information would fit in, so I may just leave it and follow up if it ever feels relevant. As a writer, I can wander the world, online, or for real, and I could be working as I travel. As a writer, I am always working, potentially, even if it looks like I am being a tourist.

I’ve been reading about Stoicism lately, and as a writer, I am finding many worthwhile ideas there, especially the ideas about having meaning and purpose in life, beyond the day to day things. The Stoics believe in wisdom, ethics, having courage, justice, and temperance. I feel these things are the best way to go personally, if I am to be the best person I can be.

As a writer, I feel that part of my task with my writing is to teach, to interest, and to inspire my readers. I may not write directions on how to be a better person (although some of what I write may help there), what I am doing, or aiming to do with my writing is to open up hearts and minds, to the millions of ways to be, and ideas for leading a better, or more worthwhile life.

So really, the point of this blog post is to reinforce the idea that if you are, or want to be a writer, the world the there waiting for you, so pick up your pen, or your keyboard, and, as a writer, do your thing!