Tag: Writing

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When Writing One Must Always …

carolyncordon

No, I’m not going to give sage advice about anything related to grammar, or reader engagement, or using correct tenses, or any of that doubtless important stuff. If you’re hear reading this you quite likely already know about such things.

No, what you must always do when writing is to hold your sense of wonder, and the idea that one day the Unicorns may arrive, and you should be prepared to adore them when the come …

Your sense of wonder can lead you and your writing to places no other writer has ever been before, and you can then truly write words that can connect to those who will be prepared to follow you, and your words, and any Unicorns that show up, and Good Things may surely come of it!

When you think your writng is rubbish and no-one will want to read what you’ve written, take a short break, smell the roses, check out the sky and see the clouds, hunt for dragons in the clouds, and then back to ground level look for Unicorns hiding in amongst the trees.

They’re all there, if you’re prepared to look, and your writing, while not perfect, isn’t ever rubbish. The first draft is what you have to write before you can begin to fix it up with careful editing, or before you go on to writing that isn’t rubbish at all.

Read good books and articles, think about what made them good, write more share your writing with others who’s opinions you respect, listen, think, speak, learn, and write and write and write, reading in between, always.

And dream, imagine, make up silly tales, imagine mythincal creatures, and hold onto your child-like sense of wonder that is still there inside of you, no matter your age. I’m 63, I write poetry, flaff around in the garden and I remember how magical it was when I bought my first Unicorn around fifty years ago. Magical!

Remember the magic already in your life, and work with it to bring magical things to the world through your writing. Magic in Economics? Sure why not? Life is magical, even economists breathe the same air we all breathe, and they can see the magic in the numbers they work with, I’m sure. There is magic in the idea of Universal Basic Income, that’s for sure!

So when writing, one must always look for the magic that’s all around and inside of you, work with it, play with it, show it to your readers, through your words!

And when you next see a Unicorn, please give it a pat from me!

New Ideas, poetry, Public Speaker, Writing, writing prompts

Stand Up, Sit Down and Write, Move, & Write Some More!

carolyncordon

The title is a list of what I do, or want to do in my life. My Stand Up career is not actually a thing I’ve ever done for money, so not a career at all, not yet anyway.

This image is of me, getting in touch with the character I ‘am’ when I do my Stand Up Comedy act. Her name is Nanna Carreau, she’s considerably older than I am (twenty years or more) and I love acting as her, it’s so much fun to think about what she thinks about things, and to ‘be her’ sometimes, and making peopl laugh when I do it!

My Writing ‘career’ though, that is something I do make at least some money from. Not enough pay our household’s bills, but at least enough to be able to pay for my coffee and meals when I go out. Book sales, and an annual Government payment cover that …

That Government payment is called the Educational Lending Right, and is a payment to writers who have a book in a school library. It’s a fine payment, I love it, I write the book, do the necessarly things, and it goes on this program, to be looked at every year, and paying out the relevant amount to me, straight into my bank account! Money for nothing, to some extent because books in libraries can last for more than one year, so those books will bring in the money for more than just one year – Bonus!

If I were to tout myself as an interesting Puublic Speaker, talking about my books and a variety of other important things in my life, that would be a good money-making option for sure. I haven’t done that much at all though, and while I have in fact done that, it’s mostly been when doing presentations with my writng group, where I have a voluntary position as the President, and as the group is a not-for-profit group, members are unable to be paid.

When I’m doing that kind of thing, I make sure I look far better than do when ‘being’ old grumpy bum Nanna Carreau!

So what’s next? Ah, Move … The image shows my canine walking partner, Lenny. He’s our dog, and my husband and I walk him at least five times a week. We don’t cover as much distance as Lenny would have walked or run as a racing Greyhound, but it’s usually more than one kilometre. And doing the things good dog ownes need to do means more moving.

And I like getting outside regularly to be with nature to look at the sky as well as our trees and other plants, and other trees, crops, and other people’s gardens when I go for a walk. I’m usually looking at the birds out and about as well, I’m an interested bird watcher for sure.

And seeing things that interest me can give me ideas to write about, and I in fact have written poems that have then been published. Having my poetry in books, whether self-published or published by others, well that’s a good thing, for a writer!

Nature, Life, and Thinking About It All gives me plenty to write about, and I love it! If you enjoyed reading this blogpost, why not have a look at what else I’ve written?!

Thanks, maybe you have your own things in your life you’d like to tell us all about, if so, leave a comment!

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What Am I Going To Do Next?

carolyncordon

I more or less ‘retired’ from the nine to five working for someone else world back in 1993, when I quit my govenment job to be a ‘stay at home mother’. My son is now almost 33, and living a good life, so I must have done a good job at being a mother.

He has moved away from home, living a good life, in his new home he had built, and married to the love of his life. I love visiting him, aor having him visit my husband and I, but both he and I have the things we love to do, that are apart from our wider family unit.

Family life is important for sure, but there is far more to what I I want to do in my life than simply ‘family’ things, no matter how important that aspect of life is.

I’ve been exploring ways to keep myself interested and doing ‘stuff’ ever since my son started school and then moved away, trying things out, working on the things that seemed interesting, and doing them, while moving on from those of less interest.

Some of those things have been paid jobs, but those jobs were either only short term options, or were not wanted I enjoyed, or wanted to do.

Making money is not the thing that fills me with interest, it’s merely a side benefit. The things that light a fire in my inner self are creative things, particularly those with a literary edge, such as poetry and writing, and being in contact with others also interested in those same things.

I have have a variety of things to show for my efforts. Books and poetry written, and published either by a publisher, or self-published. With those books, I have never lost money over publishing them, breaking even, ore even better than that.

Money isn’t a problem for me, so that side of things is under control, I’m not having to sell my soul to a boss who doesn’t understand what I need in life to feel complete! I’m currently living a life that meets my needs for creative expression, with more than adequate finances available to me.

I’m enjoying life, without having a business or job, so I’ve now come to the conclusion that I may as well go on as I currently am. I’m not only doing that though, I’m always open to new things, new says to spend my time. Trying things out, meeting new people, fun times for sure!

Looking at what comes next, in calendar of things to do, and finding interesting things that look like fun, that is how I see myself spending the rest of my life, and who mightn’t want to life their own life in a similar way!

The other creative things I’ve been enjoying lately is the Art Installation I’ve created, and am curating – the Redbamks Rust & Found Art Installation, which is my front fence with a great many rusty items on or near it. These days, I’m often looking for new old things to put on display, such as those in the photograph below!

That is a small selection of the many items on display, and every time I’m out, I may find another to add, fun!

Finding the fun in life, what a blast that is!

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What Is The Art Installation I’m Curating?

carolyncordon

I am Curating the Redbanks Rust & Found Art Installation, and while it it is not yet drawing in hundreds of visitors, I have high hopes it will be bringing in visitors soon. An Art Installation without visitors is a sad thing, except of course, the Installation has hundreds of cars driving past it every single day!

Every now and then I put out the sign, and get on with various curational tasks, making it all bigger and better!

So that is the sign, and while it is a little awkward to carry, it is a fine exercise to carry it from where it is put away, and back again, once my stint as the Curator is over, with perhaps more items put out on display!

This Art Installation has over 750 individual items, most of them ‘rusty’ bits and pieces, ‘found’ mostly by me, but sometimes by my husband. This idea is reaching out to people I’ve told about it and I’m thrilled to have been offered, and then accepted items to consider for inclusion.

This has led to some intriguing things, and I’m thrilled to have such a great range of different items of different kinds! There’s a chicken, that has attracted the interested of many, including me, I love Chickie Chook, and I have ideas about this one, with a children’s book in the future!

There’s Chickie Chook having a rest and thinking about adventures to come!

I have so many thoughts about where this children’s book may go, and putting on my business woman hat, I’m excited about using both that books, and Chickie Chook herself to help ‘sell’ this Art Installation where she lives, and reclines!

That chair may not be made of metal, but there are certainly metal bits and pieces that go to keeping it all together and while they may not be rusty yet, I suspect there will be rust happening soon enough …

There are items much smaller than Chickie Chook, such as beer bottle caps (lots and lots of them!) and there are bigger items, such as an exercise bike. And in the top photograph, there is that yellow and black sign, that I found one day going for a walk.

It was lying on the side of the road, lying flat on the ground, with weeds growing all around it! I was surprised, but knew what I had to do. I collected the item, and after contacting the relevant auttorities, who didn’t want it back, I then happily put it on display!

This Installation is taking up my interest, and my time, in great ways, and I am so looking forward to showing it all off and telling visitors all about it. There are many contexts involved, recycling, repurposing, reimagine, as well as road safety, when I consider the accidents that may be avoided because of the items taken off the road where motorists may swerve around them!

That won’t happen now because I’ve taken them from the road and put them on display as part of the Redbanks Rust and Fund Art Installation!

If you’re interested in seeing this in, contact me, and a visit can be arranged. email: kittycordo@gmail.com

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Art Is A Many Labelled Thing

carolyncordon

When I used to say I was a writer, I didn’t also consider myself to be an artist, wrongly so, as it turns out. Because of course, writing is indeed an Art, the Art of Literature.

The book pictured above is one made up of writing, both poetry and prose, from people connected to my writing group, and I am proud of each one of them!

It is filled with responses to writing prompts given at our various events held, and the book is certainly correctly labelled as literature, such is the quality of the chosen pieces.

I am as proud to be connected with this book as I am of my own personal published books I have. But a couple of years ago, I took my first steps to another form of Art, that of Visual Art. I took up the idea of perhaps writing and actually illustrating children’s picture books.

And to do that, I would naturally need to actually draw the pictures to go in the picture book, right? Right! Well that idea, while a fun change for a while, didn’t really take off in my mind, and while I’m still open to the idea one day happening, it is off my list of things to to NOW!

But the idea of being a Visual Artist as well as being involved in Literature stuck in my head, and I decided it was somethng I had to do, and how I was going to do it was to take something I’d already been doing for a bit of fun, and treat it in a much more serious way.

I am a dog owner, and as my husband and I have been walking our dog (Lenny, a Greyhound, retired from racing), well I’d been picking up bits and pieces of rusty “rubbish” and putting them on our fence.

Over time, there were more and more things there, and as the fence itself is made of iron, and much of it has rusted. I thought about it all, and decided I would put it all together, thinking of the many important contexts touched on by what I was doing.

In the image above are some of the items that make up this Art Installation, a tiny section, some given to me, some found, but all of them either rusty, found or both rusty and found. That chicken now has a name, Chicky Chook, and she may well be the ‘star’ of a picture book, using photos rather than drawings … My mind comes up with so many different ideas!

Anyway, back to the Art Installation:
Obviously, recycling and reimagining items otherwise looked on as trash, and now considered as items put on display, and so assist in the creation of the “Redbanks Rust and Found Art Installation”, all went toward my thinking on what I was doing as Art.

Initially I was Creating an Art Installation, and now, having more than 750 individual items on display, with more awaiting placement, and of course more found every week, I am thinking more closely about what I am doing, and where the best place may be for each item to be put on display.

Previously I would just put things anywhere, now I consider the most effective way to place each item, filling gaps in the display, to make it more visually appealing to onlookers …

So yes I am indeed a Visual Artist, as well as being involved in literature. I in fact have been bringing the two Art forms together, and intend publishing a collection of written responses to this Art Installation, and launch it at a Festival put on by my writing group.

Writing will always be a much loved aspect of my Art, but Visual Art is becoming more and more important to me as well!

Those two frogs were giving to me by a friend who’d had some rearrangement in her garden and no longer needed them, and she automatically thought of me! I’m becoming famous about this Art Installation, in my immediate community anyway, and am thinking about ways to extend my breadth of connections regarding this, and turn both it, and my other Creative things I do into a paying business!

Exciting times, and I am gathering as many supporters together to assist in making this installation into a fun and interesting place for tourists, whether they’re intrastare, interstate, or overseas visitors. This idea is taking up much of my thinking at the moment, and I truly feel it may actually work!

I don’t need thousands of visitors, I just need enough visitors committed to what I have to present, and happy to pay for it. I’ll be working at making my site one for not fust looking and walking on, but getting involved in what is on presentation, as a form of Experiential Tourism.

This is really appealing to me, and I hope it will be of interest to many others as well. If anyone is interested in knowing more, feel free to contact me, I’d love to tell you about it! And tell your friends too!