I made the deadline!

I had to push myself to get the short story I was writing done to meet the deadline.  All the lovely weather we had over Easter kept calling me to the garden.  But having written it, it would be stupid not to do the editing especially as it was only around 1,000 words.  I changed it from first person to third and then did two edits.  I posted it yesterday, first class, to ensure it reaches its destination in time.

Am reading through an old copy of Writer's Forum which covers all forms of writing.  I like the interviews as I am fascinated by how others go about writing.  I also had a go at some of the poetry exercises and was reasonably pleased. There may be some I can use with a bit of editing. 

While going through a pile of magazines I came across a notebook that's not been used in ages and I was quite surprised (pleasantly!) by some of the poems I had written there.  I'd forgotten them completely so it was a nice find.

Am now working on a poem in the style of Gerard Manley Hopkins for a competition in May. He's not the easiest person to parody but I did study some of his poems last year as part of a course I took on poetry and spirituality.

Practice, practice, practice

Practice, practice, practice! Yes, you've heard it all before but it is true.  The more you write the more it feels comfortable and then its easier to keep going. I always have loads of notebooks around and keep a small one with me at all times. Ideas, a word, sentence, come at odd moments and you don't want to be trying to find paper somewhere only to lose the idea.  I also keep a notebook by the bed.

Morning pages are a good idea. Write about anything for a set time. Often you will find you are being led somewhere and can form ideas for poems or stories that can be used at another time or go right in and write it there. Morning pages can be boring you find you are listing only chores to do, thinking through plans etc because you can't think what to write but being bored with it makes me then write something to get away from it! Write something every day. No where to write at home? Find a cafe or the library, make a date and time to write and use it. We can all find excuses not to write - no time, no place away from family - I use those excuses too. Don't feel guilty either, that you should be doing something else. Just do it!

My starter for 10!

As promised (have you composed your own poem yet?) here is my offering from the poetry exercise I posted here a week ago. I used eight of the ten words (see below to remind yourself what they were). This took some editing as I changed tack once.  It isn't perfect (is any poem that?) but it shows what can be done. An exercise like this makes you write and often it is on a subject you would perhaps never have written about normally and you surprise yourself. When you are stuck this is a great exercise to try even if you land up not using all the words but letting them kick-start a thought that will develop into a piece of writing (you could even use it to write a story).

The Moon
Slipping from the midnight cloud
a silver bowl, streaked wedgewood blue
strokes the river, fingers through
the ice cold rivlets, then the view
disappears, replaced instead
by darkness on the riverbed,
til once again a tear appears
across the wall of night time sky
and through the window comes the moon
slowly peeping, photo-shy.

A great start

Have found a new great website for aspiring writers at http://www.greatwriting.co.uk/  It covers every form of writing and as a member you can post your own work on there and other members can review it.  I'm finding the site rather addictive. There is so much to it that I have hardly scratched the surface. So whether you write short stories, novels, plays, scripts, poetry or whatever, you will find something of interest on there. More importantly you will find motivation and all writers need that!

Apart from trawling websites I have been writing a short story to enter into a competition. I'm not that confident at short story writing but this came to me one morning and I just sat down at the computer and typed it straight up.  It needs some editing and I must keep an eye on the deadline (I've missed so many deadlines in the past because I am a lazy writer - there I admit it!). My aim this year is to be more committed to my writing.

Have a great day!

Simon Armitage interview

Words from one of my favourite poets.  I saw him read at the TS Eliot Prize Readings in January this year.

Your starter for 10!

An exercise worth using to kick-start some poetry writing:

• write down ten random words
• now use at least eight of them to write a poem (you can either choose in advance which to use or start with one and see where it takes you)
• edit the piece as many times as you want by taking words out, using new ones, even putting those back that you've taken out.  It doesn't matter.  Have fun with it.

Here are my ten random words. You can use these if you want. Feeling brave? Post your finished poem here. I will offer my effort here soon!

bowl                         wall
window                     blue
cloud                        tear (two meanings here to play with)
letter                         rich
photo                       stroke

Flash Fiction

Sometimes I write really silly stuff. I guess it's a little like doodling on a sheet of paper. It amuses me! Let me share one of my doodles with you. 

THE GAME OF LIFE

I didn't have a Cludo what was going on.  Ludo was a friend of mine and I heard that he was caught in the Mouse Trap.  Mah-Jong told me.  Life's a Lottery and some have the Monopoly on it.  He didn't.  It was all Snakes and Ladders but mostly it was a Scrabble.  His dog Bingo had an Operation and 'Snap', just like that he was Ker Plunk.  Unfair really.  I've sat in Draughts all my life and 'Buckeroo', look at me!  Well, I feel better now I've got that off my Chess.  I'm off for Backgammon with Solitaire. (26/07/10)

Poetic pause!

The Wood Pigeons

They sit on the fence

hail bouncing off grey feathers,

while in the pools hard balls of ice

collect in frogspawn clusters.

White blankets drape surfaces, but still

they sit unconcerned, keeping watch

over the pickings on the grass

©2004

Published in “Short Cuts Poetry" 2004 (Anthology)

(Highly Commended)

Even unknowns get breaks

The announcement that the winner of National Poetry Competition 2010 was a newcomer gives hope to writers like me who still aim to 'make it one day'. Paul Adrian scooped up £5,000 for his poem 'Robin In Flight' beating acclaimed Matthew Sweeney into joint second place with Josephine Haslam.  In Paul's interview with Poetry News he admitted that he did not belong to writers' or poetry groups and wasn't even sure how many of his family and friends knew he wrote poetry!

A lot of writers starting out don't admit they write. This might be because writing is seen as a sort of hobby or they lack confidence in what they do write. It takes time to find your own voice and then to share your efforts with someone else.  Will they laugh?  Be horrified? Say nice things because that's what you want to hear? Hate it? Writing is a very personal thing and allowing it to go into the world is hard, it's your baby and critisism is never easy to take (I know!). It took me a long time to send things to small press magazines because I knew that rejection would feel like a kick in the teeth. It does and dents your confidence big time. However, remember that poetry, like any art form will get different reactions from different people because of the way we experience life and what we bring to form those opinions and indeed what we write. There are some poets I like and others I don't but others like them and they are up there with 'the big boys'. What do I know?!

All I can say is keep at it, look at some courses that can help your writing, read a lot of contemporary poetry and find some small press magazines that publish poetry that you like and go for it. Have a look at some of the links which I hope might prove useful to you.