Tag: creative writing prompt

covid 19

Poetry and Prose in My Life

carolyncordon

The first time a poem I wrote gained attention, was when I was in high school, in year 8 or 9, when I wrote a poem about a farmer who was talking to his god, and asking whether the god wanted him to kill his wife as a sacrifice. What a sweet thing that is, not …

It was a rhyming poem, not in any particular style, and not very many lines. But it had pathos, and clutched at the heart in the plea the man was making … I think I was supposed to be writing prose, rather than poetry, and I’m not sure which country’s history this was set in, but I do have a strong memory that it was somewhere in Europe that began with a ‘C’, and it might have been Carthage … I’m not sure.

I’m was more interested in writing poetry, than studying history, and this was a way I could do both of them at the same time, but the ‘writing poetry’ bit is the part that has stayed with me into my life, after stepping away for a time after school, and then stepping back in, when I needed it, to help me get through post natal depression …

And now of course, eight books later, I’m a writer, and while not earning a living with my writing, at least making a little money from it. I sell books, sometimes, and I receive royalties, and both PLR and ELR payments. Not huge amounts of money, but nice little payments any way. As someone I’ve met recently said, not a poet for the money, but for the fame!

And yes, I’m a famous poet, to some extent, for sure. I have several poetry collections to my name, plus other books in prose. I’m also the editor of the popular newsletter “Mallala Crossroad Chronicle”, as well as the president of the Adelaide Plains Poets writing group, that meets every Thursday (Online only at the moment, but at the Prince Albert Hotel in Gawler, usually). So yes, words are my thing, poetry and prose.

And now I’m doing something new, that will bring another book to add to my current list of books published. This book will be “Plague Invasion – Creative Writing in Response to Covid-19” will be an anthology containing the words of many others. and I’m currently asking people to send me poetry and prose, for consideration of possible inclusion in this anthology, which I feel will be an excellent book, with a broad range of responses from a broad range of people, from a broad range of places.

There will be some silly things, some serious things, poetry in various styles, and prose, both fiction and non fiction. These will be considered responses in prose, heartfelt poems, song lyrics about silly things, and quirky words about this strange time. Collecting together all of these words feels like a further extension of my lifelong love of words, and my life as a poet and writer, a wordsmith.

I hope many more people will join in, and help me put out stories about how ordinary people have managed to get through this Covid-19 time, when we are having to stay away from the things we love, in most unusual ways.

So feel free to submit your words for consideration for publication in this worthy anthology: send via email (kittycordo@gmail.com with the subject ‘Plague Invasion submission’), up to three poems of thirty lines, and/or three pieces of prose of up to 2,000 words in total.

I look forward to reading your submission for consideration.

writing prompts

Fab Feb Writing Prompts – Day Six

carolyncordon

It’s an important word, ‘After’. After what? Afterwards, after dinner, after school is over, after you’ve left that job you hate, or been sacked from one you loved, after the divorce. 

Today’s writing primpt is that word –      After

There are so many things in life that come along after … After you think about this new word prompt, I hope you’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 …

Some of these things are good, some are not so good, some can be terrible. But they’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? 

Big things might happen after … or maybe things stop happening after, and how might that feel? 

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

Writing, writing exercise, writing prompts

Fab Feb Writing Prompts – Day Five

carolyncordon

As they say in the James Bond movie – Never Say Never!

Actually, feel free to say Never, say the word, and write about it! Today is the day for it, because the word NEVER is the writing prompt for today, the fifth day of February. It’s a trick word, never. We may say, in our earlier lives would never do this or that or the other, in our lives. But we grow up, see things, like things, accept things, and our thoughts  grow, and change, as we get older, living, leaning, losing, lazing about!

As youngsters, we have we may have declared, ‘I’ll never ever do that!’, only to realise, as you’ve aged, you’d be quite happy to do that thing now, because you can see the wisdom of doing that very thing, whatever it is.

For me, my personal most unfavoured food that I now love to eat, is mushrooms. I hadn’t self-declared as a no mushroom eater, when I was a child, as such, I simply never ate them, if and when, they appeared on my dinner plate. Then pizzas came into the world (or at least my pre-teen world) and I discovered that mushrooms are actually quite tasty!

food wood kitchen cutting board
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

So I went from never eating mushrooms, to eating these tasty and healthy foods quite often. So much for that word, never! 

Is there anything you never do, or never have done? Personally, I’ve never bungie jumped. I’m not saying I’ll never done it, and it’s difficult to see any circumstances occuring where I’ll have the opportunity to do it, but who knows, I might well give it a go!

Last year, I certainly learnt a lesson in using that word Never. My mother and I were chatting at our usual Friday catch up, about how neither of us had ever broken a bone, even though there were certainly times when we could have. And then, the next day, what did I do? I fell over and broke my ankle – in fact two bones in my ankle!
(If you want to, you can read more about it here, at another of my blogs.) That blog post, and many of the ones that follow are about my ankle, it was my major focus for the three months that followed. I’m going to be more careful about using this bog word, Never, in the future!

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ouch, my poor ankle! But hey, I’m a writer, and I wrote about my ankle, and had a book published with the poems I wrote when I was laid up, with instructions to not put any weight on my right foot! And here it is, my beautiful little book!

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If there’s anything you’ve never done, or would never do, are you sure about that? Never vote for ? or never have a ? as a pet? You never really know what might happen, how circumstances might change, and how your knowledge about things may change too, based on further relevant information. 

 

So today’s prompt, is ************** NEVER************ 

 

You could write a list poem, containing all of the things you would or wouldn’t ever do. 

Or you could write a list of ‘Never Do This’ things, make it sensible, or funny, give examples, save lives or make people giggle, take this any way you want. I would say ‘Never break your ankle!’

Or you could do something else entirely, based on your thoughts about that word, ‘Never’.

poetry, writing prompts

Creative Writing Prompts, Soon!

carolyncordon

Yes it’s true, a month’s worth of Creative Writing Prompts are starting tomorrow, the 1st of February! I jumped the gun a little yesterday, and the first prompt, which I will be showing on this blog tomorrow, the 1st of February, very much is to blame for the previous post. I was very excited and got mixed up with my days, yesterday. Under control again now though!

I’m going to explain it in a poem, which I’ll post on this blog site, for the big announcement tomorrow morning! There are no special prizes offered by me, not financial ones anyway. Connecting with other writers who love to write, and who also love to help others to write, that is a prize worth having, I say!

I am that writer and an informal teacher, and the thougth that other poets and writers may write some fantastic work, if they take part in any or all of these writing prompt challenges geiven here this month excites me and fills me with joy! So, if you love to write, or think you’re love to, then please log in here every day, if you can, see what the writing prompt for the day is, and write!

If you can’t log in every day, you can still take a look later, see what you think, and write when you have the time, and inclination. I’m going to try to write something new, in response to the prompts, every single day, and I hope I can write some fine poetry!

I hope the same thing for anyone else who takes part in this month of Prompts – together lets all make February Fabulous!

If you think ypu’d like to take part in this Fabulous Fun February, why not leave a comment here, and we can get to know a little bit about each other, and what, if anything, we wish to achieve.

I’ll get things started:

I am Carolyn Cordon, President of Adelaide Plains Poets, who meet every Thursday afternoon for a writing meeting, in a particular hotel in Gawler.

I have written and published eight books, three of them poetry collections, and I wish to have another, bigger poetry collection, later this year, or next year. (My most recent poetry collection was a chap book, with only 21 poems in it, all on one subject matter, and I plan for a larger and more broad-ranging collection for my next one.

I wrote my first decent poem in my early years of high school, then poetry fell off mostly, until I had a huge life challenge,and needed poetry again. After that, poetry and creative writing have taken over more and more of my life, and I love it!

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Your turn know, please leave your own message, telling your poetry story!