Tag: creative writing

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Writers Need Inspiration!

carolyncordon

This is something I know so well – without inspiration, the well of creativity is dry, and nothing gets written. And what is a writer without words being written? A sad creature, that’s what.

But when the inspiration comes, the words come too, and wonderful things can come of it. Inspiration can be a mysterious thing – where does it come from? Is it ‘out there’ floating around in the winds, until it crash lands in your brain, ideas come, and yes, words are written!

I’m being inspired at the moment by my current obsession. This is a thing I’ve named, The Redbanks RUST & FOUND Art Installation. It’s a big thing, with many different aspects to what it will become, but the basis of it is the finding of rusty things which I put up on our rusty gate and frond fence at our place.

There are over 500 different rusty and/or found items there on display now, and the front fence, all 60 os so metres of it, has lots of different things there. And there are a few larger objects there as well, just our side of the front fence, where people taking a look can easily see them!

Some of the things in this Art Installation were found while going for walks, others were found when looking around my place outside. The piece below is one such ‘find’ our old front tap, which was replaced with piping that will never rust, because it’s made of PVC, a form of plastic.

So I ‘found’ that object the other day, and immediately decided it must become a part of this Art Installation! And so it is, right next to the rusty old gate that began this whole project! There are a few other metal objects there as well, found ones, and all along that big gate are many more.

I was inspired by that tap earlier today, and I wrote a poem, a brand new poem, which may be in the non fiction book I plan to write, and have launched perhaps in July next year. I’ve never written a non fiction piece as big as this one will be, but with the given time period, I reckon I can manage it!

Anyway, here is that poem, I hope you like it!

CREATIVE FLOW
The flow when it’s there is a wondrous thing
Thoughts to written down words and more –
Ideas mount up, fuse together, split apart
Merge, diverge, become greater than anything
Ever before, until l have enough, my cup full
and it stops – real world thoughts return, dreary
and mundane … but that creative flow
Captured in writing, shaped and shining,
That will remain, reminding me of my other self –
The one who’s spirit is healed and strengthened 
By the creative flow that washes over me
Every now and then, that makes me whole!
The flow when it’s there is a wonderful thing
Thoughts to written down words and more –
Ideas mount up, fuse together, split apart
Merge, diverge, become greater than anything
Ever before, until l have enough, my cup full
And real world thoughts take over again
Dreary and mundane, but that creative flow
Captured in writing, shaped and shining,
That will remain, reminding me of my other self –
The one who’s spirit is healed and strengthened 
By the creative flow that washes over me
Every now and then, and makes me whole!

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Enjoying Helping Others!

carolyncordon

When I took on the role of teaching creative writing at a local, I didn’t realise how much fun I would have doing it! Some of the people who came along to learn already knew a bit about creative writing, others hadn’t written anything like that since their school years, many, many years in the past.

Seeing the happiness this writing brought to these people made it all feel worthwhile, and even if these people never get anything published, it won’t matter, because they’ve done something they never thought they could do!

So I’m not just teaching creative writing, I’m helping to increase the self esteem of people who never had any thoughts that they were actually good at writing. I helped them learn that, and that is such a fine thing to have done!

I’m not interested in cleaning other people’s houses, serving people in a shop, or driving them to do their shopping, I have my own difficulties with some of those things, but creative writing? Oh yes please, I’m excited to assist others with doing this!

When a person gets an understanding of what they can actually do, when they thought they were a bit dumb, or at least not capable of creating good poems, or interesting short stories, for instance, what a buzz that gives them and what a buzz that gives me too, when they can see they’re actually quite good at doing this!

If I could go on helping other people learn to trust themselves with their ideas, and to bring out their ideas and turn them into something bigger and better, whoo hoo, I love it! When people learn to trust themselves, and to fashion their thoughts into something other people will enjoy reading every bit as much as they enjoyed writing it, what a buzz that is for them!

In my life, I’ve had assistance from a great many good writers, those who know what I now know too, that helping others to write is a fine thing to do. I could become a counsellor, but that would take up too much of my time, when I have many other things I want to accomplish. But giving an hour of my life once a week, helping others with creative writing, that is more than enough, at this time in my life.

Helping others to reach into themselves, learning the power of their words, and the way other people can enjoy hearing, or reading those words, what a fine thing it is. I could go on doing that for the rest of my life, squeezing it into my week, in between whatever else was also there for me to do.

Enjoying doing what I’m doing, helping others to do the writing that brings me a buzz, so they get that too, how awesome it is! If you like to write, and if you’re here reading this, I assume you’re a bit keen on writing too, wel lif you like it, you know how it is, the feeling when you write something good! It doesn’t happen every time, but when you get it, wow!

Helping other people, sharing what you’re good at doing and helping others to do it too, what an awesome thing. Whether it’s writing, or some other kind of thing, painting, knitting, gardening, or learning how to fix a car so it goes better, what great things these all are. Helping others, helps yourself too, and don’t we all need a bit of extra help every now and then? You bet!

So think about what you’re good at, and find those who’d like to learn how to do that too, and help them, you’ll all love it, the learner, and the teacher as well.

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Creative People Have Ideas, This Is One of Mine – A New Competition!

carolyncordon

So this creative idea of mine, it was prompted by my wandering around the Internet, with little idea of why I was doing it, or what I was going to find.

I saw something, which prompted thoughts about writing some kind of short fiction, which them morphed into a bigger idea, the one I’m going to take further below. There may be a monetary prize, for something written and submitted, so keep reading!

The thing that was the main catalyst for this idea, was a website, http://fiftywordstories.com/ which led me to thinking about the possibility of doing something similar, possibly without a cash prize, but who knows it may happen, I’ll decide on that part later …

Anyway, what I’m deciding, (thinking as I type here), is that I will ask, in fact I am asking, for some kind of creative writing, using the image above, and a random number hmm, lets see, 28.

So further to that, I want a piece of creative writing that is twenty-eight words onlynot more or less, but exactly 28, not including the title. And don’t get clever with the title, by making it a long one, the title must be of 5 words or fewer. It can be poetry or prose.

Feel free to take that image any place, pick one thing and use your imagination, or write about all of it. Or anything in between those things. I will do the same, and post my own prompts, two of them, one poetry, one prose.

What I would like to receive, as a comment below, is your response, one only of either poetry or prose, in only 28 words, (title not included, but limited to 5 words of fewer).

The Chase!
Race day today,
best day of all!
Leash on, muzzle on
into car
on our way.
The track,
the others,
all muzzled,
into our boxes
wait,
and ………
GO!

I don’t know this aspect of Greyhounds, but I can imagine, and I have experience of Harness Racing with horses, as the daughter of a horse trainer when I was young.




Oh Jennifer, My Trainer
She haunts my dreams, remembering what could been, if only. Injury-related retirement earlier than wanted …
We both cried, but for different reasons – pets don’t race, or need testicles …


This little prose piece (flash fiction) is related in a fictionalised version of the life of the Greyhound in the photo, our Greyhound Lenny. I’ve imagined Lenny with a female trainer, rather his actual one, and obviously thought my way into his head (or tried to!), which could be nothing like the truth. And Lenny’s racing life wasn’t cut short by injury, the idea just suited my purpose

**********
So I’ve used the dog in the photograph as my writing prompt, but could easily have written about anything in there, the toys, the bed, the room. I could have written about what the dog was dreaming about, other things than I actually did, or I could have written about the various toys, one or all of them, the shark could be musing about the indignity of being used as a mere pillow for a dog, for instance!

The possibilities are only limited by your imagination! So think about it, and when you have your very best, send it in. I’m accepting only one piece either of poetry, or of prose, based on that image of Lenny lying down with his toys around (or under) him. On the 28th of this month, I will choose the best piece of poetry, and best of prose, and the winners of each will receive $28 Australian dollars.

I don’t want to see any pieces too similar to mine, in the content used – take it somewhere else entirely, surprise me!




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Busy Times Are Good Times!

carolyncordon

I have so much going on right now, in my life as a writer/poet/blogger/editor, I barely know which way to look!

But the prioritisation of the tasks to be done is more or less under control, I think. I may be deluding myself about that, but time will tell, at least I hope so. I know what I will be doing every day, if there is something important I must do, because I use the calendar on my mobile phone, and I always take my phone with me, wherever I am. Except for when I go to bed.

Sleep is an important part of the day, and I value my sleep, so when I go to sleep, my phone does as well, turned off and up the far end of the house from my bedroom. Its cheeps and chirps will NOT wake me up, so I sleep well!

Having, and using that calendar has been a welcome tool to help me keep on track with what I have to do in my life. I also have a diary now, which I am trying to use as well as I the calendar … And a further tool I will be thinking about getting into my box of useful things to use, and that is a five year book for the writing down of important little things. This book has the title of ‘One line a day’, and has the room for five separate one small piece of writing, on every page. It is diary form, but with space for more than just the one year.

So I am to write down my snippet of interest on the relevant day, including the year it comes to my mind. And eventually, I might have a book filled with pith little sayings, that will be of much interest to people interested in such things, when I become famous. Haha!

The most important thing coming up at the moment, that is written about in both the mobile phone, and my diary, is the upcoming launch of my next book! This is exciting news, and I certainly wasn’t going to forget to go to it! But writing it up shows how important it is to me!

The book is my next Poetry Collection, titled ‘Leonard Cohen Is Dead’, and I honestly believe this is my best collection written yet! And today I was at an event in the Civic Centre in Gawler, the town where my writing group meets. I had to be there, for a couple of reasons, because firstly, one of our group members was one of the three presenters, and secondly one of the other presenters is the person who will be launching my book for me, and I wanted to show my solidarity to him, as a sign of respect!

When writers are able to do things like this, it leads to an even stronger connection happening. Being a writer can have the lonely times, with just you and the page/screen, putting down your words in the hope of eventually connecting with readers …

I have to get the next issue of the newsletter I Edit for my town too, and I plan to do a lot of work on that tomorrow, when the house will be mine (and the dog’s too), and all I need to put my mind to will be getting myself coffee as needed, putting out the call for pieces for the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle newsletter, and then heading off to Gawler for the writing group meeting …

I have to do this every month, and while I do enjoy doing this, it is about the only thing I occasionally feel stressed about, when or if I don’t have enough done, and the end of the month is approaching, which is when the Chronicle is due to be printed and then distributed! But I’ve seen for myself that the world doesn’t actually end if the issue doesn’t actually come on for the intended month, but is released in the following month instead.

The fact that it was out of my hands, and there could be no blame laid on me over it helped, but I still felt a bit stressed about it. It felt so wrong for the month to end without the next issue of the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle coming out! It was eventually out though, so that was fine. I hope the May issue is out on time though! So tomorrow, I will do all I can to get the issue almost ready to be sent off to be printed!

And of course, there is that ongoing Cosy Murder Mystery I’m supposed to be writing … I think I’ve done my homework to hand in tomorrow, which relates to the homework given last week, to present at the next group meeting (tomorrow). And I’ve got my next poetry collection to add more poems to … It’s going to be a chapbook this time, rather than a full collection, so that takes off the pressure a bit. And I don’t have a time frame, or due date for that, but I would like to have it ready to be published, by July next year, if I can.

So I’m thinking about that one too, and hope to continue with those thoughts, but there’s no stress for that one, it won’t impact anyone apart from me. So most of this stuff is totally under control, and is exciting, but not stressful, and these are busy times, but good times!

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One Book Launched, What Comes Next?

carolyncordon

I’m thrilled to say the launch of my most recent book, “Plague Invasion” was a success, with many copies of the book finding new homes, and many more to post to their new homes iin the following week or so.

Self-publishing a book needs so much more than just asking for submissions, putting them together, and then have a launch to give a copy of the contributors present, and actually sell some of the books.

So I’ve done that part now, and as I indicated, it was a successful day, with the money taken bringing me closer to breaking even, if I don’t factor in the time this project has taken, and other related costs. I’m enjoying what I’ve been doing, and so am happy to cover some costs.

And one of the costs is to send out books that have been ordered. I have postal addresses, so today I’ll be putting together the books to post, in Australia and beyond.

But I’ve already begun work on the next Covid-related book. Someone (I can’t remember who) gave me the idea for the title, and I’ve already begun a file on my laptop, with some contributions that didn’t get into this first book.

The second book has the working title of “Are We There Yet?” or possibly the slightly longer title of ‘Are We There Yet? Yeah, Nah …” This second, longer title will, I hope, lend a satirical tone to the project, and assist in bringing in a diverse range of creative writing responses.

I plan on this new anthology being ready to launch at about this time next year, hopefully during the Gawler and Adelaide Plains Festival of Words 2022. So I am in the middle of getting all of these copies of Plague Invasion out, but I am also looking to the next book.

Am I mad? Or am I just enjoying myself with this so much, I don’t want the fun to end?! Maybe a bit of both. But if I can do this without sending myself broke, and give some previously unpublished writers the chance to have their work in a book, without getting ripped off, I’m more than happy to do that!

I have a sponsor (my mother), who I acknowledged in Plague Invasion, and she is one of those people who had their written work published in a book for the first time, and she read the short story she wrote at the book launch, a very prooud moment for her, and for me as well!

My Mum is great! I don’t know whether she will get hooked on this writing thing, and want to be in the next book, but if she does write something, I will certainly consider it, as I did for the works published in Plague Invasion.

The book, what will the cover for the next book look like?

I was stunned at the perfection of this book cover, and can hardly wait to see what may happen for the next book. I’ll have to wait and see what works may come in, once I’ve put the call out. Not yet, I need a rest! Patrick Millikan, the young man who created the from cover image has done fine work with this one, that’s for sure!