Tag: call for submission

covid 19

Importance of Goals

carolyncordon

When a writer is going to work on a piece of writing, they can either just start writing and see how it all goes, or they can begin with a goal, and follow along, with the various check points toward a finished product. Or, of course, they can do something in between the tow options.

Going ‘freestyle’ and just writing is a way that can bring amazingly rich and unusual results, but it can also lead to a lot of waffle, that needs to be edited out, to eventually bring a final result that works well. It includes a lot of effort at times though, producing words that have no place in any original book the writer wants to be connected with. Waffles are fine in the kitchen, or on a plate, but not in a good book.

The opposite method, or planning, and moving step by step to produce a book will reduce the waffle, for sure, but possibly may bring about a staid and boring book, with no flights of imagination, just dreary facts, with not a single flight of fancy in sight. Boring, boring, boring!

A better way to go might be to have a plan, but be open to new ideas, as things go along, and with the gaze firmly on what is happening in the book-in-progress, what may work better, or has turned out to be a bad idea, or not the best one. An idea that arches over the entire book, the reason why this is the particular book you have to write, right now, is a good thing to hold to, so you can look at each new thing, and ask, does this match the idea, does it add to what I want this book to be, or to do.

If you are writing about growing flowers, but end up on a trip to the desert, and back, with not a flower mentioned, you’d have to ask yourself, what is the reason for that trip to the desert, does it add to my book about growing flowers? If you’d stopped and taken photographs of flowers blooming after heavy rains in the desert, then sure, that was probably an interesting, useful, and relevant side-step.

If there is not mention though. of even a blade of grass, but it’s about camels, or other desert things, but not plant matter at all, it’s in the wrong book. Put it aside, and get back to your original idea, the one that lit your creative fuse. Consider your goal, and go back to it, get back on track, and stay there, as much as you can. A better, and more considered book will result.

Thank you for being here, now I have to get back to working on that book that lit my fuse – an Anthology of responses to Covid-19!

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My New Project, Thoughts and Ideas

carolyncordon

My thoughts and ideas regarding my new project are growing, as I think about the enormity of what I’ve done. I am not a publisher, as such, I am a writer and poet who has self-published my own work … They’re two things, two different things. Or are they?

To some extent yes, when I’m publishing my own books, I can just do whatever I want, and if it goes well, great, if it sinks, oh well, I’ve lost a bit of my own money, and I grin and bear it. But this new project is something else, something big, and involving many others, who are trusting me with their words, their thoughts. It is humbling, and it is a little bit scary.

some of my self published books, and my poetry collection (Tense and Still) published by Ginninderra Press

I tell myself, yes, I can do this. And step by step, I am doing it. It’s only been a couple of days, but there is already some interest, with some pieces of relevant writing already with me. I will do this, because I have to. I’ve made an offer, accepted work, and now must put the words together, into an a book.

So what is this project? Briefly, I am going to publish an anthology of written responses to the Covid-19 problem that is causing illness and deaths throughout the world, as long as having many, many people suffering from having to remain ‘locked down’, staying in their homes, instead of going to work, or school, unless they have jobs classed as ‘essential’.

I put out this call for submissions on this blog a few days ago, and have been exploring ways to keep on getting more interest in what I’m doing. I will be contacting local press, I’ve been putting the information out on Social Media.
What more can I do? Keep on doing what I’m already doing, and remain open to any other ideas and options that may come along.

I am also in Locked Down. I have a chronic illness, that possibly makes me more vulnerable to getting this illness, it I am exposed to it, apparently. So I’ve been staying at home. I know all about staying at home. I’ve lived through being a stay at home mum, without a car, and now public transport ( a long time ago, my son is now 26). And I’ve lived through having a broken ankle, last year, when I spent almost all of my time during the day on this sofa I’m currently sitting on, unable to walk.

So being in lock down mode seems quite commonplace to me, really. When I had that broken ankle, I saw it as a great chance to get some writing done, and I wrote poems about my broken ankle, and I connected with a publisher I know, and they published the poems I wrote. I came up with a good title that attracted interest (“Angles on Ankles“), and bang, a new book appeared.

That arrow amused me so much! Surely it was easy enough to tell which was the broken ankle, it was a swollen lump of an ankle!

I hope the title I have for this Covid-19 Lock Down project has the same effect, plenty of interest and a book that attracts a lot of interest. My proposed title for this anthology is “Plague Invasion” and it certainly feels to me that this virus is a plague that has invaded our lives and our homes, even as we work hard to keep it away from us, by staying home and washing our hands.

If you’d like to be involved in this anthology, leave a comment and we can discuss it! Or send me an email: kittycordo@gmail.com
Thanks, yours in words,

Note the ‘lock down’ messy hair, and the slightly manic smile. These are crazy times.

Carolyn Cordon, writer, poet, blogger, dreamer, believer!

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Putting My Own Work Forward

carolyncordon

This idea of mine, as outlined here yesterday, to organise an anthology about Covid-19, and its affect on us, the creative writers, who see things, think about them, and respond with our main tool, our words, and writing abilities, is real, it’s happening, and people have indicated they’d like to be involved. This is one of those humbling moments, to have other writers acknowledge that my idea to do this was a good one, and a healing idea perhaps, or at least a chance to try to understand it better.

I’ve received the first response to my call for creative writing submissions, and I felt almost scared about reading that response, at least before I’d written my own work for possible inclusion in the Plague Invasion Anthology. I’ve written my own first response now, a poem, an acrostic poem, in fact, and I will share it here, to share one possible way other creative writers may like to go.

And, because it’s relevant to my own poem, here are some trees.

And now, here is my own poem:

Plagasion

My Acrostic Response

Please stay at home. Or go back to work.

Leaving it up to us? Or just confused? 

Anger, anguish, thinking of loved ones lost,

Going down sad old paths, or fresher grief.

Aware, or maybe not, that grief takes time …

Stay together, this journey is one untravelled

In our lives before, the rules fluid. No-one

Owns this problem, unless Nature does, and

Nature is trying, yet again, to make it better …

So that’s what I’ve done, now, will you put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, to produce something that might be suitable for “Plague Invasion” and Anthology of creative writing in relation to Coronavirus – Covid-19? I hope so.

If you wish to submit your work for consideration for this project, here again, are the relevant details:

send your work before 31 July 2020, by sending it as an attachment, to kittycordo@gmail.com, using the subject of ‘submission, Plague Invasion’
If you would like to know more about this, feel free to send me a query, at the same email address, with the subject of ‘query Plague Invasion’.

Thank you, and best wishes to you, in these troubling times

Carolyn

Carolyn Cordon, Editor, Poet, Writer, and Dreamer.