Tag: poetry collection

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.
 
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,  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.
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                 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!
Writing

What Is A Writer?

carolyncordon

Points to Consider

  • Poetry
  • Prose
  • Journalism
  • Fiction
  • Non Fiction
  • Article
  • Blogs
  • Public Speaking

All of the dot points above involve writing, and involve writers. Not every one of them necessarily is seen as making a person a writer, but it’s is definitely true that if you write in any of these forms, you could call yourself a writer.

Whether or not you and your words ever get published is irrelevant, if you write, you are a writer, that is what I believe. Of course for some the idea of sharing their work with many other people, and even earning money with your writing is the ultimate result, but that isn’t as easy as it may seem.

So are you a writer who wants to get your words ‘out there’ and even earn some money? Read on, below:

 

Get your words working for you!

If you live in or near a town or city, there are probably many venues where you can meet with other writers. Many hotels and libraries, for instance, sometimes hold ‘Poetry Readings’ where poets can attend an ‘Open Mic’ session, having the chance of 2 or 3 minutes to read their poetry to audience members.

Service groups are another possible option, for being a place where an audience may be interested in your writing, and maybe but your books if you have them available.

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For the poetry options, the audience are often to also there read their own work out, so they are likely to already be interested in poetry. If you attend these kinds of events, and become known to other poets, there may be the chance of finding other events and other possibilities.

If you send your poetry to online or other magazines, you may gain publication and if you have enough of your poems published, or available online, you may have a higher chance of having a poetry collection published. If you want to cut some corners, and have some spare cash, you could self-publish a collection yourself, and possible sell some copies to heal to cover your costs, and maybe even make a profit!

The more you are seen, ‘out there’ with your poetry, the more likely it is that someone may ask you to present your words to an audience. If you write a lot of poetry about flowers and plants, for instance, perhaps a gardening group might like to have you speak to their club members.

‘Gigs’ like this may not be paid opportunities (although they may be, sometimes), but they can be a great chance to sell copies of your poetry collection, or whatever genre it is that you write. The same applies if your genre is something other than poetry, readings from collected short stories, or blog posts collected together, or articles, all these are possible avenues for a writer.

 

Bottom Line

So what is a writer? A writer is a person who writes. The world has many, many readers, as well many places looking for entertainment options. A writer can fashion themselves and their words as possible entertainment options, in a variety of ways. Comedy, for instance is an option. If you have a funny bone, and a good sense of timing, you may be able to become a stand up comic, or perhaps you could find somewhere you could sell your jokes – country newspapers are a possible place to accept such writing.

If you keep an open mind, and keep your options alive, who knows what and where your words may end up!

If you are a writer, the whole world is out there for you!

Writing

History of My Writing Life

carolyncordon

A relevant Facebook post from today, here.

My writing career is made up of many parts, some lonely, some joyful and many stages in between. The Facebook post talks about the beginning of my writing, back at Primary School, and brings you into the right now. It is a good life, it brings me much joy, and great friendships.

And sometimes it brings me money. The book I speak of in the Facebook piece is “My Dog”, read it, and see how teachers may use it in the classroom here! It’s easy to see that dogs have played an important part of my writing life, as well as my ‘at home’ life. I love the way dogs fir into my words and my world so well, may it always be so!

section1My Books

Uncategorized

My First Poetry Collection

carolyncordon

I wrote my first poem that gained acclaim back when I was in my early years of High School I don’t actually remember which year it was, but I was around thirteen I think. It was History class, and we had to do a project on a particular historical place. I don’t remember which place it was, but it was in Europe, in the olden days, and I’m almost certain it started with the letter ‘C’. It may have been Carthage. It may have been somewhere else entirely.

And when I say ‘gained acclaim’, I mean my mother liked the poem and I suspect I got a good mark for the project, enough to impress my mum. Anyway, the important thing is that I learned that poems can impress people, if they are good enough. I didn’t immediately start penning more poetry to attract the interest of others, because life especially when you’re at school, and then work, life takes over many creative aspirations, giving way to financial ones.

But I did get back into writing poetry, particularly after I quit work, and became a ‘stay-at-home mum’. Being stuck at home with this new creature in my life meant I was home, with not much to do beyond caring for this new baby, as well as the dogs we had. It was a whole new world, as I quickly realised having a human baby was not the same as having puppies. Some of the processes are similar, but the care and love is so much deeper when there is your child involved.

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Photo by Alicia on Pexels.com

I’d gone from being a worker, five days a week, travelling with my husband from our home in a rural area, to the office job in the city of Adelaide, our state’s capital. In the early times of being a mother, I had no car, and I have to say, I felt lonely, even with that baby present 24/7. There was some post natal depression happening, and I was certainly not feeling like a person who was capable of doing anything that deserved public acclaim.

To find some sense of worth, I eventually began a TAFE course – the Advanced Diploma of Professional Writing. I enjoyed this, going out at night to classes, where there was no child depending on me for everything, and I could talk about writing in its many forms, rather than talking about nappy changes … It was a blissful ‘grown up’ thing to do, finally.

I never finished that TAFE course, but I had begun doing many more interesting things relating to writing, in particular poetry. I didn’t feel I needed more information, although, in retrospect, I could have been wrong to thing I was fine. I’m OK with that idea though, and will just do my best to keep on taking up learning opportunities as they come along.

Anyway, back to my first poetry collection. This collection, titled “damage children, Precious Gems”, deals with extremely personal things in my life. I was sexually abused as a child, and then teen, and probably, as an adult too. Being a woman, sexual abuse is always a possibility. I used the writing of this poetry collection as a form of informal therapy, and am glad I have found an audience of people who have also been or still are, victims of sexual abuse. I set up a blog with the same title as this poetry collection, where I look at abuse, in particular sexual abuse, and many things related to it.

It sounds like a gruesome thing, I know, but my collection follows a line from terrible, to good, or even excellent. I was a victim, but I am now thriving in my life. Being able to say that means much to me. I am happily married, have a child who is a fine person, and my life is a good one. Not bad, for a person who went through abuse from a person who was supposed to be ‘a friend of the family’.

The writing of this poetry collection has been a healing thing, a therapeutic thing, and I firmly believe in the idea of therapeutic writing. It can happen in an informal way, as in my case, initially, or it can happen in a more formal way, but however it is, it can be a  healing thing, for sure. I have a strong interest in this form of writing.

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Being able to find myself in this position is a wonderful thing, a liberating thing, and I hope my words in this first collection can help many more people who are living troubled lives because of abuse. Nobody deserves this, no-one ever. If you are struggling with abuse in your life, I urge you to seek assistance from those who can help. Your doctor, trusted person, authorities, whoever, there are many people whose task it is to help people …

There are many organisations here who can help, please go to these people if you need them. Nobody deserves to live in fear of abuse, and anyone who has been abused deserves to get help when they need it.