Tag: creative writing

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When Writing One Must Always …

carolyncordon

No, I’m not going to give sage advice about anything related to grammar, or reader engagement, or using correct tenses, or any of that doubtless important stuff. If you’re hear reading this you quite likely already know about such things.

No, what you must always do when writing is to hold your sense of wonder, and the idea that one day the Unicorns may arrive, and you should be prepared to adore them when the come …

Your sense of wonder can lead you and your writing to places no other writer has ever been before, and you can then truly write words that can connect to those who will be prepared to follow you, and your words, and any Unicorns that show up, and Good Things may surely come of it!

When you think your writng is rubbish and no-one will want to read what you’ve written, take a short break, smell the roses, check out the sky and see the clouds, hunt for dragons in the clouds, and then back to ground level look for Unicorns hiding in amongst the trees.

They’re all there, if you’re prepared to look, and your writing, while not perfect, isn’t ever rubbish. The first draft is what you have to write before you can begin to fix it up with careful editing, or before you go on to writing that isn’t rubbish at all.

Read good books and articles, think about what made them good, write more share your writing with others who’s opinions you respect, listen, think, speak, learn, and write and write and write, reading in between, always.

And dream, imagine, make up silly tales, imagine mythincal creatures, and hold onto your child-like sense of wonder that is still there inside of you, no matter your age. I’m 63, I write poetry, flaff around in the garden and I remember how magical it was when I bought my first Unicorn around fifty years ago. Magical!

Remember the magic already in your life, and work with it to bring magical things to the world through your writing. Magic in Economics? Sure why not? Life is magical, even economists breathe the same air we all breathe, and they can see the magic in the numbers they work with, I’m sure. There is magic in the idea of Universal Basic Income, that’s for sure!

So when writing, one must always look for the magic that’s all around and inside of you, work with it, play with it, show it to your readers, through your words!

And when you next see a Unicorn, please give it a pat from me!

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!

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Stand Up Comedy, Who Can Do That?

carolyncordon

Some people are terrified of Public Speaking, and would rather to almost anything, rather than actually speak in public. Not me, I love it!

So when the chance came up to do a short Stand Up Comedy piece at an event with several other Stand Up Comedians, I said, yeah, count me in! And now, as one of the other performers at that gig, Todd Gray, wrote in a message to me, ‘that monkey is now off the back, and a weight off the chest’.

The other performers, and especially the person who organised it all, Marc Ryan, were lovely to me, and it seems like the kind of thing where they all look out for each other. They all thought I’d done a good job doing my act as Nanna Carreau, an old dear who’s funny!

I had a couple of poems I’d written, and performed them, people laughed (with me or at me? who cares, at least hey were laughing!) And wow, I enjoyed doing that so much, I really want to do another gig!

Anyway, yes that monkey is now off Nanna Carreau’s back now too, and she’s has been whispering lines to me, for the next show! The performers there on that night at the Prince Albert Hotel in Gawler, it was, a venue I know very well. And no, not for hte reasons you’re thinking!

My writing group meets at that hotel every Thursday afternoon and that helped a lot on my big night as a Stand Up Comedian! I did a little impromptu act, sort of, yesterday too. I was driving home from a visit to my Mum, and had to stop to fill up my car with petrol. And as I was going insode there to pay for the fuel, I saw to young women collecting money for something or other, and decided I’d stop to see what it was all about, on the way back to the car.

So that’s what I did. They told me what they were doing, and I told them about doing the Nanna Carreau, and did a mini act, with just my voice and words, not dressed up in character, like in the photo below!

Then one of the young women google Nanna Carreau, and found a photo of her/me, and we all laughed again! The photo was a smaller one, and only showed Nanna’s Carreau’s head in that same beanie (which she’ll proudly tell anyone and everyone, she knitted it herself), but that link and photo were definitely enough to back up the truth of what I was saying!

Anyway, they told me I should record myself doing my act, and put it up on TikTok, and I’d get thousands of followers! A fine idea, and one I may see if I can get my son to help me with that one day. In the meantime, I’m definitely going to discuss the possibility of that writing group I mentioned putting on a workshop in doing comedy/Stand Up, and then later on in the year, have a Stand Up Comedy event as a part of the Festival of Words we run every year in July.

We have a theme for the Festival, and this year the theme is ‘Time’, and Nanna Carreau and I are already thinking about what we will/or rather could do with that theme! I have to remind myself, I may be the President, but I have a subcommittee to convince!

Ah life is so much fun, and it looks like it’s going to get much more fun, and funny too! Cheers, have a laugh, you deserve it!

Arts, inspiration, New Ideas, starting a business, therapeutic writing, writing opportunities

Moving Forward, Slow & Sure!

carolyncordon

I know what I want to do, and I know many of the people who can help me as I go. Having goals is one thing, but with action, a goal is just a decoration, amounting to not a lot that is very useful in terms of ‘doing business’.

The goals I’ve set for this year though, ones developed after reading a recent Journaling topic given by Nan Berrett on the Facebook page ‘Your Journaling Journey’ will be guide posts to assist me as I go through the necessary steps to make my business the best it can be!

The ten ideas I came up with in response to this prompt topic cover a variety of things, some of them concerning my business others more personal things, but it all blends into creative things for 2025!

This Journaling Journey has brought up many interesting thoughts and ideas, and I definitely want to continue with journaling once this 30 day program is all over.

This is part of our gate, which forms a part of the Redbanks RUST & FOUND Art Installation, which is going to be one part of the business I am going to start up early this year, if all goes as I want it to! I’m excited about this new direction I’ll be going, it feels like I’m finally doing what what my life has been leading me to!

So slow and steady wins the race, and I have my eye on the prize, which is to have a respected business doing a variety of creativity-connected activities that will bring in a reasonable profit for me (eventually).

This year is for setting it all up, next year though, let that be the year it takes off in good ways!

I’ve made some money from my writing over the years, but now, with many more things to do, I ‘m expecting more! An I nervous about starting a new business at my age? No! I’m almost 62 and that is the perfect age to do this!

So I’ m not nervous, I’m excited. Bring it on, I’m ready to make it all happen! Many thanks to the people who’ve been helping to get to this position, especially my Support Worker, Tereza, and my husband Graham! You are both great, and have helped me to be great too, or more than that, I am Awesome!

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Exciting Times Are Coming Soon

carolyncordon

As a poet writer of many, many years with nine books published, I consider myself to have been a hobbyist for most of those years, and while I’d more recently thrown off the hobbyist tag, I haven’t really thought of my writing as being a business.

But as a creative person, with ideas frequently popping into my mind, and with some of these ideas while still Creative things, they’re a large step on and up, far beyond being a poet and writer. And with these new ideas I have, I can see much more opportunities in terms of actually making money, more than occasionally selling one of my books.

I am looking to bring together all of my Creative things I do, and doing all of them as aspects of the business ‘Carolyn Cordon Creative’. I am poet and writer, yes, but I will also be and Art Installation Curator, and a Stand Up Comedian/Performer too. And while I will still be doing the various creative writing group and workshops I currently do for free, I will also be putting my name out as a Performer and Presenter, and also the person running a Tourism business.

I’ll have lanyards for this and that, so many of them I’ll have to be careful not to choke myself! Haha. One tag will do – Carolyn Cordon Creative!

The turnaround in my thoughts about all of this came, I feel, when I realised what I did at my own home had possibilities for Tourists to visit, and also my most recent creative writing workshops are proving to be worthwhile to others, and fun to me as well.

And while I won’t be starting to charge for those particular workshops, I feel the world is my oyster regarding any more such opportunities that come along.

And having this new website, where I have brought all of these aspects of myself together, and having paid money for it, rather that doing the basic websites by myself, well, it feels much more business-like to me. I’ve been talking with people, getting assistance, and I know who to talk to in the future to get all of this business thing up and running, soon, soon, soon!

I’ve put a note on my calendar (which I’m now using in a more business-like manner these days), to get a haircut if and when needed, and for me that is definitely a sign of new things on the way. Usually my next hair cut is months overdue before I get around to doing anything about it!

I have meetings that will be relevant to me in my new business happening soon, I’ve got a milion ideas in my head, and I am so excited to be doing this. I know there are many things I don’t know yet that I don’t know, but the idea of the new learning required makes me even more excited, not worried!

I have two books on the way, with both of them to be launched later this calendar year, and I am going to have a fine time wehn both of htese new books are launched into the world – book launches are so much fun, I love them, and when the book being launched is one of mine, Woah, even better!

There is a poetry collection, about the pond at our place, and the turtle who lives in that pond. This should be easy to get ready, most of it is already written, and it’s mostly poetry that is already more or less collected together, and ready to be made into a book.

The other book to be published is another poetry related book, with some prose as well though, and photographs as there too. Hmm thinking about it, perhaps that book may need to wait a longer time. Unless … Ahh, the decisions that need to be made, I can do this!

I’ve had the thought that perhaps the idea that I move up from self-publisheing my work and actually become a publisher, may be useful, and profitable … Who knows how that might go. It’s certainly relevant to everything else I do!

At the moment having this business is feeling like a big bundle of fun things, wrapped up together with the possibility of getting money for doing what I love to do. How awesome would that be? Extremely Awesome!