Tag: inspiration

poetry, writing exercise

Covering Same Issues

carolyncordon

With these writing prompts, that I write on every new day, I don’t know at the the start which direction my muse may take me. But the direction I headed straight away today, was to a place I’ve been before. Thoughts on ‘Hidden’ things have been a huge theme for my creative writing, and have brought good results, of various types, financial, therapeutic, and for the broader community too.

I have written more about the kind of thing I write about in today’s poem, on another of my blog, this one. I created that blog to help with promoting my poetry collection of the same name.

I don’t think I need to go to much further here now though, the poem I wrote for today, which is Day 6 of #poemadayfeb, will tell the story. I have been very much enjoying being involved with this daily poetry writing idea, & I hope I definitely stick with it to the rest of February, and perhaps beyond, using writing prompts from somewhere else. I have a box of writing prompts hidden away somewhere, and I have plenty of time to find them …

 

So here it is, my poem for this sixth day of February:

 

Finally Healing

 

It hurt so much, you kept it hidden,

your shame at what you’d done,

& knowing doing that was wrong.

 

But talk of ‘love’, was always there –

on radio, tv, movies, ever present,

& ‘love’ was what he’d  claimed …

 

But love in childhood isn’t that,

love for a child is pure & sweet,

what he did to you, wasn’t pure.

 

You held your story close inside,

until clarity & truth arrived at last –

with realisation fault wasn’t yours.

 

The adult, he was to blame for this,

you didn’t do it, it was done to you –

a child – the fault, all of it, was his.

 

He died alone, his crime unknown

except by other victims, perhaps.

& you’re all alive, your secrets told

 

& in telling, finding needed peace,

forgiving yourself, confident now

to tell your truth, & in telling, heal

poetry

Day 4 of #poemadayfeb

carolyncordon

Another day, another poem … The theme for today’s poem for this poetry projecct for February, is ‘Inside’ … As I’m sitting on the sofa this morning, laptop on lap, window the the left of me, TV screen in front of me, Missy our dog on her sofa on my left, it was easy to find things to put into an “inside” themed poem.

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So this poem is basically life as it happened, with some further thougthts about my life, Missy’s life, my husband’s life, and possible further life … At the moment, I’m happy enough with today’s poem, it isn’t loaded with metaphor or fancy poetic form constraints, it isn’t ‘clever’ or terribly deep, really.

It’s just my new poem, with some of my thoughts about the day, today, the fourth day of February, and what is happening right here, right now.

Here is the poem, I hope you like it. Feel free to post a comment, if you wish. About my poem, about the contents of this blog, about the #poemadayfeb project, about anything!

Here is today’s poem:

 

My Inside/Outside Life

 

Sitting inside, looking out,

I see cars passing by,

& trees with waving branches –

waving hello to me?

No, just waving, at the dictates

of the breeze.

 

Inside with me, are Missy,

& the TV screen.

Missy & I both ignore

screen’s action, Superbowl?

Pfft, who cares? Not us,

none of our business.

 

What is our business?

Is it inside or outside?

Missy is pet dog,

self-installed ‘guard’ dog,

hubby’s walking companion,

so for her it’s both.

 

My business is, hmm, what?

Writing? Community stuff?

‘Business’ is a textured word,

spiky with taxation obligations

& other rules & regulations,

but can be rewarding, too …

 

I’m a pensioner,

my ‘business’ is untainted

by money, & taxation,

unless my business was to off,

climbing above & beyond

inside/outside constraints.

 

Writing, & community,

writing about community,

just writing, writing a poem

writing a novel, writing my way

into things, bigger and better

than my inside/outside life?

Writing

On Writing a Poem a Day

carolyncordon

I have a friend, a fellow writer, who has put together a list of words, and has challenged others to write a poem a day for the month of February. This list of words was posted on instagram, which I don’t ‘do’, but there was a link on Twitter from this person, and I certainly ‘do’ Twitter. My friend is Kathy Parker, and she is a fine writer, and keen blogger.

The idea is to use the given list for writing prompts, and write a new poem every single day in February based on the day’s prompt. It seemed like a fun challenge to me, so I said, yes, sure I can do that. So today, on the first day of February, and the first day of the challenge, here is my first poem, which I just finished writing. The poem refers to something that happened to me yesterday. I will explain a little about the poem after.

Poem a Day, subject – Heat

 

In the heat of discovery

Thinking on the past, things happened

bad things, good things, so-so things

but this new thing, this wondrous thing

has warmed my heart and my writerly soul!

I thank my former self, my untidy, creative,

even sometimes crazy self, thank you,

thank you, thank you, for this wondrous gift!

A novel written by a past me, hidden away

for some unknown reason, lost? Not sure,

but has reappeared, a first draft, with some

minor changes already on it, and with more

to add, change, explore, and wonder at, as

the future me, thanks the former me,

for losing this novel way back whenever,

for me to find again now, at a time when I am

eager, ready, willing, and able, to work

as needed to turn lost possibility, into found

certainty, as I read this novel and wonder

at the beauty and interest in my forgotten words.

I know this forgotten story, and these characters,

I’m remembering it, this lost story I lived with

 for a time, back in my past, and now I hope

to read this story, edit, it, love it all over again,

and to share this story, with as many others

as I can, as a brand new book, in this new year!

 

So yesterday, as this new poem indicates, I did indeed find a manuscript of a first draft of a novel I wrote many years ago. I’m not sure how many years ago it was, & I’m not sure how I actually came to find this paticular sizable piece of writing, and why I took a look at it, and suddenely remembered it, of course, that story, those characters, hooray, I might be able to do something with this.

The manuscript is printed single spaced, it is 84 pages, and I suspect it may have something like 62,000 words. I’m going to check the going word count required for a book such as this one, before I get to far through the process of reading this story again for the first time since I put it away.

So I’ve just spent half an hour looking at word counts for books, and it looks like the best length is probably somewhere around 80,000 words. My very rough calculations put my novel at 62,000 words, as I wrote earlier. I’ve only just begun reading through my first draft of this book of mine, and I am adding, rather than subtracting from the word count, and I’ve discovered some notes I’ve written, that indicate I will need to add more to the novel to clarify some issues, so that will add further to the word count.

All in all, I am quite excited about all of this. By the way 2019 is looking, I may well actually end up writing at least four whole books in just one year! Woo hoo to me!

Writing

A New Title for Proposed New Book

carolyncordon

I’m hoping for some feedback here, although I probably already know the answer to my query. I have a few books in progress at the moment, one a novel, and the beginnings of a picture book, and some bits and pieces for a 8-12 year old chapter book. The Novel has a title already, that I am more or less happy with at this stage, the children’s books are at very early stages and don’t need a title yet. One of the others is a book I’m working on, which I’ve put quite a bit of work into, regarding structure, is the one I’ve just thought of a new name for.

So what do other writers feel about titles for their work? Does it really matter anyway, until you’re going to send it to a publisher, or at least have a book well on the way to taht spot? Should I stick with the original at this point, and just keep on writing? Or if the new title feels better, in some way, should I run with that? Actually another point, am I merely procrastinating by starting this blog post? Procrastination, such a seductive alternative …

Anyway, if anyone has any thoughts about the things I’ve mentioned, please leave a comment. Another point, I am proud of myself for not looking at my Facebook page, which if I glance upward and to the right of my screen, I can see has two new messages. If I was smarter, I would shut off Facebook, and that is what I am going to do, right now! I find Facebook such a timewaster, I should know better and just not have it on, if I’m meant to be writing!

There, done. Goodbye Facebook! Oh how I love you Facebook, but oh how I loathe you too! I find it so easy to spend hours on Facebook, pretending I am actually doing useful things for my writing. I do get ideas for my writing from Facebook for sure, but I also get ideas for my writing by actually writing. Blogs are slightly better for my ‘Brand’ as a writer, but again, actually writing would be good for my Writer brand too, to actually have a new book to get published and promote!

Thoughts on these things are welcome too, again, just leave a comment. Now I’m going to take a look at my book that possibly needs that new title. I’ll put it on the document, and see how it feels, as I get on with the writing. This is a non-fiction book, a blend of memoir, thought, and essay kind of thing that is probably going to be easier to simply self publish rather than try to interest an actual publisher in it. Anyway, this is the book that is of the most interest to me at the moment, so that’s what I’m going to work on now, Bye!

Writing

Thinking of New Year 2019

carolyncordon

There will be no New Years resolutions for me, and this is why:

Over the final month of 2018 I’ve been thinking about the meaning of words, and how actual meaning can be lost or muted over time, particularly through flippant overuse. New Years resolutions, where many of us put together a list of our worthy resolutions, only to ignore them or willingly break them early in the New Year is one of those words.
A resolution is an intention, something we aim or plan to do. But no matter how worthy this intention or resolution may be, so many of us easily and quickly throw that New Years idea to the winds, and just go back to our bad habits of previous times. We eat, drink, smoke, work, too much even though we’d resolved not to, or we don’t do the  exercise or good works we had written down as a New Years resolution.
Is the problem one of semantics perhaps, and maybe stripping it back to bare basics might be better, is what I’ve decided. Some circumstances demand that you drink more than usual, or have another smoke, or don’t do that exercise program. Life can be a problem, trying to fit in or take out various things, and worthy pursuits we had resolved to do, go undone.
This is a shame, but hey, that’s what life is sometimes, isn’t it?
That’s why this year, I’m going to do it differently. This year I won’t have a list of intentions, or resolutions. This year, this year I won’t resolve to itdo anything anything, and then not do it, there’s it’s happened many other years. Instead, this year I simply declare this. This year I WILL BE the BEST person I can be.
It’s as simple as that, it’s as widespread as that. In everything I do, every decision, action, or choice I make, will be the BEST I can do!
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This will be dependant on how I am feeling, and what I am doing, but I am promising right here, to anyone visiting this blog, that everything I do in 2019 WILL BE the BEST person I can be. I will write the best words I can, I will be a caring and useful community member. I will give my all to every thing I do. My life will be a shining example of the the Best I can do, at every given moment.
There will be times when my BEST may not measure up to much, but it will truthfully be the BEST I am able to do at that time. I am not a super person, I am living with a chronic illness, but I am also well looked after, and have great family and friends. I have no excuses for not doing my BEST I can, and I therefore WILL DO MY BEST!
I will do my best writing, I hope to publish at least two books in 2019 (or at least have them written and ready to be published in that year). These books are a children’s picture book, a chapter book for middle to upper primary school level, a chap book if not a poetry collection, and the next book in the Buster the Dog series, which will be a book written with my friend and fellow writer Janette Menhennet, who is writing with McTavish the Cat! Fun times for sure, and I’m looking forward to getting this book ready and seeing any illustrations that will be done by my usual illustrator, Ally Hean!
2019 will be my BEST year ever, in many ways, and I look forward to putting out information about my writing in 2019, to keep everyone up to date!