Tag: creative writing

Cozy Mystery, Writing

When Work is Huge Fun

carolyncordon

I spent almost all day yesterday, and into the night, working on various bits and pieces of my upcoming “Cozy Mystery” books. More words were added to the one I’ve written the most for, lots of work done on characterisations too, and more ideas for some of the titles already named.

This is so much fun, that even if I never ever actually get any of the ten plus books in the series planned, it’s still worth it. I can call it therapy, and revel in the amazing things my brain is doing, even with the damage my Chronic Illness (MS) may, or may not be doing to it.

I know more and more about the people in my stories, what they look like, what they fear, what their secret powers are, what their role is, and so on. As I learn more about my characters, more subplots pop up, for the various titles, and I’m working at putting relevant ‘bits and pieces’ in the correct story.

This is creative writing times twenty, putting together not one story, or one book, but a whole series of stories in books, and it feels like the best fun ever, as a writer. Creation of a town, its residents and writing about it in a new (to me as a writer) genre, and having fun doing it, what a life this is, wonderful!

I’ve found the thing I really feel I can go on doing for the rest of my life, and I’m loving it! My main character (Meredith Webster) is going to be my best friend, and my helper characters (Gert and Mister) and going to keep it all going! Murder in the small town of Talloola is going great, with Meredith there to find out Who Dunnit!

I created this town and these characters for the novel I’ve been writing (in bits and pieces) for a couple of years, but the Thriller genre wasn’t ‘thrilling’ me. But as soon as I changed it to the Cozy Mystery genre, Bang! It all started coming together beautifully well!

I’ve based my setting on one I know well, with the name and some details changed, to suit the story. Coming up with the various things, names, places, community details, these are the funnest thing, to change things at will, but always with an understanding of the real story, world building in small ways, creative fun for sure!

poetry, writing exercise

Two-by-Four, a new (to me) Poetry Form

carolyncordon

 

I recently discovered a new form of short poetry, the Two-by-Four. It is a poem of two words to a line, over four lines. I found it on the website of a South Australian poet Paul Szlosek, who has a fine interest in poetics and writers/writing. I love short forms of poetry, and this one is a neat little package, with no time for wasting words, ideal for readers with no time to waste!

In the original form there was no title, but I’m inclined to go along the way the website owner I mentioned went, and use titles, in the interest of clarity of understanding. This is the link for that website, go along there, to read more about it. Then come back here and read my own attempts are writing Two-by-Fours. And after that, why not have a try yourself, and to write some of your own Two-by-Fours!

Not Me

Some people

say poetry

must rhyme –

I don’t …

 

 

Political Correctness

More than

anything else,

it’s just

being nice …

Well that was fun to do, and if a writer can write two fine pieces of work in less that half an hour, then that is a fine form of writing for sure. I’m quite happy with this little poetic form, for sure, and I can see myself writing many more of them in the future!

Thank you very much Paul, for bringing this form of short poetry into my poetry world! If you have any thoughts about these little poems feel free to leaveĀ  a comment!

 

 

inspiration, Writing

Looking for Something …

carolyncordon

When a writer is in between projects, or has let one thing rest, and is working towards thinking about it again, and deciding what might do next, they may be looking for the inspirational thing that will pump up the volume, and get them going hard again on their writing. They may look like they’re not doing anything at all, but deep inside their head, there could be mighty ‘thinks’ going on, unknown to the rest of the world, and unknown even to them.

analysis blackboard board bubble
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

It can be a time of ‘fluffing around’, doing little bits of writing, bigger bits of totally non writing things. Gazing at clouds and trees and birds may occur. The dog could be let outside, and let back in again, with resultant non-literary work a welcome step aside back to the ‘ordinary’ world.

Then a thought may come, and another, and suddenly that half-written novel or poetry collection springs back into life and the words may flow as strongly as a flooding river! That time can be a glorious one of inspiration, and words, all flowing together in beautiful ways!

If you have ever been in this wonderful time of “flow”, you will understand, if you haven’t been there yet, if you keep on writing, it is sure to happen at some stage, perhaps when you are able to give uninterrupted time to your writing. Sometimes, afterwards, it might feel like the words were written by another person, but take joy in it all, these may be the finest words you have ever managed to write!

Or there may be some bits of dross, stuff that doesn’t make sense to you, but keep on with what you’re doing, it might all come together at a later time. Look for any gems of inspiration, and who knows, it may be that what you wrote is actually a quite different style, that might take time to come to terms with.

If you’ve been writing poetry, perhaps your brain decided to write a novel when you weren’t paying attention, in that state of flow. Look at your work, your words, and prepare to keep an open mind about what you’ve done! 20190618_142947

I find Nature inspirational, the trees, the blue sky and the clouds, lovely!

 

Writing is a strange thing to do, a solitary thing, working alone, as you prepare something you’d like to share with multitudes! So keep an open mind, as I said, and always be prepared to trust your writer’s brain, when things really take off, you never know where you might end up. Sometimes a writing prompt can work like this, you’re given something random to write about, and Bang!, something beautiful happens with your words!

This is what inspiration is, you can’t guarantee it will come, but you should make the most of it when and if it does! If you have a story of a time you were inspired, I’d love to read about it, leave a comment here, and tell us about it!

poetry, Uncategorized

On Poetry Competitions

carolyncordon

The writing group I am the President of, has been running an annual, national poetry competition right from the time the group began, back in mid 2005. At the time, I was working part time for my local council, as a community worker.

My role was to try to bring about aspects of economic development to the community, and the poetry event competition was all a part of an event taking in the whole of the region where I live, with many towns being involved.

I now longer do that job, the funding ran out, and I moved into the volunteer realm. I enjoyed doing what I did for payment, for sure, but found some of it stressful. Now I’m doing similar things as a volunteer, the pressure is very much lessened.

So poetry competitions … The number of entries my group,Ā  the Adelaide Plains Poets receive, is on a steady rise, in the main, and the overall quality is going up and up, in the current three sections – Open, Secondary Student, and Primary Student. This year, we have a larger entry for the Primary Student Section, because of work done in particular with one local school. This is certainly a good way to increase poetry submissions, if you talk to students and teachers in their schools, they will feel more willing to get involved.

I think we will do more of this, perhaps getting started on it earlier next year. Connecting with schools is fun, for many people. I certainly enjoy talking to a class about poetry, because I love poetry, and I’m working to increase the level of love of my favourite writing genre! If I can engage students, and help them to love poetry too, then I’ve done a good job!

Some people don’t have a lot of money to spare for fluffy things like poetry. That is why our group doesn’t charge for students to enter our competition. We also have a low charge for the Open section, and the fee is structured in a way that encourages a higher number of entries, without sending anyone broke.

We currently charge $10 for the first entry, then $5 for any subsequent entries. This is for the Open section only – students are limited to only one poem each. There has been a lot of variety in the way poets have interpreted the theme of this year’s competition. This is important for a poetry competition, a broad theme will engage more poets, as they consider how they think on the theme.

I have been able to speak to some of the people entering our current poetry competition and have been happy to find so many lovely people who thank me for providing them the opportunity to ‘have their say’, about something important to them. This helps to make this task even more enjoyable.

Then, when the winners are announced we will all find out which poems struck the judges as being ‘the best’. I spoke with both of our judges today, and was pleased with the things they both said. This is the first time we have had two different judges, one fo rthe adults, one for the youngsters, and I feel this has been a good move. It is a different task, judging the poetry of Primary or Secondary school students, compared to judging the poetry of adults, after all.

Finding out who the winners are, and hearing their words will be an exciting thing indeed! If you have ever thought of entering a poetry competition, I say go for it, as long as the entry fees aren’t too high, and the possible prizes are suitably high. Poetry is a fun thing to write, and these competitions could potentially be very rewarding, if you’re good enough! Comparing your own poem, with the winning poems may be just the impetus you need, to make your own poetry shiny bright and perfect!

But beware, there are some ‘competitions’ that are blatant rip offs. The fees we charge are reasonable, but some competitions have far higher fees, for very little possible recompense. Leave those ones well alone!

If you have anything to say about poetry competitions, leave a comment, I’d love to read your thoughts!

 

poetry

Multiple Copies are Great!

carolyncordon
I had an accident today, and deleted all of the poems in the file n my laptop that is my poetry collection that I want to send off to a publisher soon. My intention is to have some other people read the collection, and give me feedback. If I couldn’t get give them the poems, they wouldn’t be able to do that. I wouldn’t be able to send it to a publisher, either.
Ā 
I nearly freaked out, but I took a deep breath, got myself a calming (?) coffee and searched my laptop, for help. I found some of the relevant poems in emails I’d sent to myself, and that worked for finding some of them, and then, hooray, I found another copy of the file, on my laptop, an earlier one I’d emailed to our PC, to make a photocopy,Ā  that had almost all of the poems in it, phew!
When I say ‘I nearly freaked out’ it isn’t true, really. I did take a big breath, and get that coffee, but I would have looked calm to anyone present. I methodically considered my options, and worked away and cutting and pasting, taking poems from various places, and putting them in a new file.
Did my work with looking at Stoicism help me with this? Hmm, I think it may have. I felt quite calm, once the initial ‘oh no!’ feelings calmed down. Once I was sitting again, coffee and laptop present, I worked at it all afternoon, and got it done. I went outside, let the dog out and back in, and she and I both had lunch, but I did a good afternoon of work on it.
IMAG0306
Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā Missy slept through most of it, she’s calm like that, most of the time!
It was an interesting chance to look at these poems again too. I did some editing, making several of the poems better, and I added two new poems, and took out two other poems that I felt were too weak. So this ‘disaster’ was actually a good thing after all. I will remember that, and keep calm and work methodically if I ever need to work like this again!
This laptop is still new to me, and I’m very much in the learner stage with it. Using the home PC is easier for me, but of course, I can’t take my PC with me anywhere, and I can’t sit on the sofa with the PC comfortably on my lap!
So now that I have the poetry collection put together in the one file on my lap top, and the other copy there too, marked as Do not delete, it should all be fine. I’ll send that document to the PC tomorrow, and then hand that hard copy on for the review of others.
I’m so glad I found those versions, that’s for sure. And I think this collection is looking far more publishable than my most recent one, that was rejected. When I looked at it again, once I was over the hurrumphing angst of rejection, I could see that it was a bit of a mess, with little to say. Some of the poems were ok, but that isn’t enough, just some …
In this new collection, all of the poems have interesting things to say, and they blend together in good ways, in my opinion. I hope my readers will back up my thoughts on that, and if they don’t, that they will be able to give me pointers about where any failings are.
Giving a poetry collection to others feels like giving your newborn to a stranger, in some ways, but of course, that is something that all writers have to do, if they want to have their words read. And only a strange kind of writer wouldn’t want to be read by others, surely?
What do you think? About having readers before sending off to a publisher, and about how it feels to let your ‘babies’ go? Please leave a comment, if you have something to say about this!