Tag: mindfulness

Writing

What You’d Like To Know

carolyncordon

New writers are often given the advice to “Write what they know”. I don’t know who it was to first come up with that one, and I don’t really care who it was. I believe my advice, to write what you’d like to know is far better advice.

If you are writing non fiction on a subject, you will have so much more fun, and write a far more interesting piece, if you look more deeply into something you’d like to know more about. The research will be more fun and interesting, and by the end of your article or book, you could be well on your way to being an expert on the subject, with a new book to promote!

And if you’re writing fiction, have your main characters with different hobbies, or lifestyles, to what you have yourself, but that you’d like to know more about. The characters will then be new and interesting to you, and you will make them interesting to the reader, because they, and what they know or do, are interesting to you. I know about dogs, quite a bit about them, actually, but I don’t write books about dogs as the only point of interest. In my series about Buster the Dog, I write about Dogs and something else. The first book was dogs and gardening, the second dogs and mindfulness, and the final on was dogs and buddhism.

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These books were all written with Buster the Dog as the main character and they are in his point of view (first person POV). Dogs do many things that people do, but they don’t necessarily do them how people do them. In fact they often do them how people DON’T do them, and that is where the humour comes from.

I know more about dogs now, than I knew back when I wrote that first book “Dig It! Gardening Tips for Dogs”, and I know more about gardening now too. The same with Mindfulness and Buddhism, I know more about both of them before I wrote “Doggone It – Mindfulness from a Dog’s Point of View”, and “Dog Buddha’s Thoughts”. I had enormous fun researching the subjects, and thinking on how a dog would view the same things that I was learning about.

When your writing brings you joyful fun, it isn’t tedious getting the words written, it’s a good time. And talking about your books is still a fun thing to do, talking about dogs and the funny, silly things they sometimes do!

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Writing

Most Recent Published Book

carolyncordon

I am extremely proud of my most recent book. I wrote it and (self) published it last year. This book is the third in the series that began with “Dig It! Gardening Tips for Dogs”, then went on to “Doggone It – Mindfulness from a Dog’s Point of View” and ended with the most recent book “Dog Buddha’s Thoughts”. I began a blog about that first book a long time ago – it is here.

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As you can see in the photo of the book, I claim this book was written by Buster the Dog, “assisted by Carolyn Cordon”. I am Carolyn, and I have to confess that there is no Buster the Dog, not really. Buster the Dog, I always say, lives in my head. and of course that is true, because Buster is a figment of my imagination, a combination of all of the dogs I’ve lived with, and my thoughts and imaginings about those dogs.

I’ve been a dog exhibitor and dog breeder in my past, so there have been many, many dogs there for real. I don’t show or breed dogs these days, but I’m still very interested in dogs, and we still have a dog, one we bred, and showed (once) – Missy. We gave up the dog show world not that long after Missy was born, and then some years later, we gave up breeding dogs too.

The purpose of this blog post is to talk about where writers might get their ideas from. This recent book, about the thoughts of the Dog Buddha, is a good one for this for many reasons. Firstly, it is about dogs, and as I have written, there have been many dogs in my life, and Missy is still here (sitting on the dog sofa, just across from me, as I type, actually).

So I see think about dogs, and live with a dog. Missy does funny things sometimes, she ‘gardens’, she hunts, she rolls on the grass in the backyard, she eats food that falls on the ground, as well as doing many other things that appear in my recent book. I have a friend who is a Buddhist, and the idea for this book flowed on well from the second book in the Buster the Dog series. Mindfulness and Buddhism go together well, and I go the idea that dogs could have their own ‘God’ who they revere, as humans may have their own God or Gods.

I modelled this book on the first two books, where each chapter was about a certain ‘thing’ and I then expanded more about that ‘thing’, as a dog might consider it. So in the first book, “Dig It! Gardening Tips for Dogs” these are chapters about such things as composting, fertilising, and so on, and in the book, it is obvious that dogs and humans look at these matters in quite different ways, with humorous results. With the most recent book, I spent some time considering the thoughts of the Buddha that humans hold dear.

I then thought about possible wise thoughts that could be attributed to a canine Buddha, and then how Buster the Dog might try to live his life in accordance with such wise thoughts. When I first began writing this book, I was the Writer-in-Residence at a particular cafe, and I would sit there thinking about the Dog Buddha, about dogs, about the ‘real’ Buddha, and about Buster the Dog. It was fun, and come up with a new thought always made me happy! I was certainly feeling inspired at that time in my life.

Inspiration can come from many things, as I’ve indicated. I write poetry, as well as prose, and today, I was inspired to write a short poem, a haiku, by two very different things I saw. I was on my way to our vet to pick up some medication for Missy. ON the road just down from our house, I saw a dead lizard, and thought, ‘Oh, poor lizard’. Then, getting closer to the vets (Roseworthy Veterinary Clinic), I saw a better view of some smoke I’d spotted earlier in the day. There seemed to be a fire up in the hills to the south-east of Gawler.

When I got to the vets, I got out my mobile phone and wrote the haiku poem that was sitting there waiting for me. It may not be a great haiku, but I’m happy I was inspired enough to record the sad moments. This is the haiku I wrote. Feel free to comment about it, whether you liked it or not. I always appreciate getting feedback, no matter what. Here goes:

Lizard dead on road
fire in the hills nearby –
early Spring sadness

 

Now that I’ve thought about this poem, I’m wondering whether or not the final word should be there. What do you think? Leave a message to let me know!

So that is a small look at how some of my writing has been inspired. There are also the five word challenges I’ve written about, and many other things. Life is there to think about, and be inspired by, always – live your life, and remain open to finding the inspirations available!