Doing it my way

I completed the challenge to write a flash story every day during November. Phew! On the last day I had a mini writer's block. I stared at the blank page and had no idea what to write. I put a few words down but couldn't take it anywhere. It was evening, and I don't write so well at night. So, I decided to leave until morning. Of course, that morning was the 1st December - a day of a lot happening. It was time to light the Advent candle (when I'd found where I'd put it. This is becoming all too familiar!), and to open the first door of my Advent Calendar (yes, I still have one). It was also the day of the concert I had been rehearsing for with the choir. Could I find time to write something as well? Apparently, yes.

Rehearsal with the band before the concert

The coming of Christmas suddenly gave me an idea, and I was able to write a piece before donning my festive outfit and Christmas socks, grab my words folder and go and catch the bus. By the way, the concert was a great success. It has been two years since we last performed live and the audience was very appreciative. Our programme included For Good (from Wicked), Shona Malanga (Zula traditional), I Heard it Through the Grapevine and Sail On. We ended with a couple of Christmas numbers.

Merton Cemetery

Yesterday, I went walking in the freezing cold. This walk was a staple lockdown route last year and early this year, but I've not been there in months. I went to say hello to the horses in the field and see what was around in the wetlands. I also popped into another haunt from those times, Merton Cemetery. I took lots of photos here in lockdown, including the one that is one cover of my little book Where It Ends. It will now forever hold a place in my heart.

This morning I started some new writing. I have no idea whether it will go anywhere or not. I'm just having fun writing at the moment. I'll write what is on my mind and then I shall take time to flesh out my characters and see if it has any potential to run anywhere. Some might say this is a waste of time to write this way, but I cannot plot everything out in advance. It squashes my creativity. I plot in stages sometimes and very often I have no idea of endings. This can lead to panic, but then I have a flash of inspiration. My theory on writing is that you can always go back and change things. I never have a pattern to the way I work. Even editing. Sometimes I edit as I go, but mostly I leave editing until the end and just get the bones of my story down. Of course, there are those pieces I begin and then leave. Those times I have to read through the whole thing before I can continue!

One thing I have learned is that I need to do things my way. I don't write to a market. I don't stick to one genre. Both of these things are rather frowned upon, but that's not me. I like to be free to write what I want. As I write mostly flash and short stories this is easier anyway. I do always stick to submission guidelines, however.

I should get my act together now and submit some poetry to a few magazines. Well, you never know....!

What I am singing these days!

I belong to a choir. I might have mentioned this before. It's a community choir (no auditions) and sing anything from pop to folk and world. Yesterday was rehearsal day. We are working towards our end of term concert as well as a few Christmas appearances for charity. So we are learning two carols - In The Bleak Mid Winter and Quem Pastores Laudavere (close to the John Rutter arrangement). I do rather like singing in Latin, or in fact German. I find them easier than French.

We shall have one major rehearsal just singing Christmas carols before we do our spots at Waterloo Station and around Kingston in December.

Our end of term concert is also for charity. We will sing in the cafe of The Rose Theatre, Kingston, but this concert isn't just about Christmas as we will sing other things too.Our MD has done a wonderful arrangement of the Killer's Human. We sing it slower than the Killer's and our version has four parts. It makes for a very complex song and yesterday we managed to sing through the whole piece which was an achievement! We don't as yet have the final list of song we shall sing at the concert but they will include Queen's You're My Best Friend, Do You Hear the People Sing (from Les Miserables), Inchworm and a couple of songs from our last concert - Here Comes the Sun (Beatles) and Never Enough.(from The Greatest Showman). Oh and we will have a band!

I have been part of this choir for ten years, almost from its beginning. We have come a long way in those years. Everything is learned by rote, so no music required. We have lyrics for most songs but I do my best to learn them off by heart so I can really enjoy myself on concert day. Being part of the choir has given more confidence. I've always loved to sing. It makes me happy, and I love performing too.

The Big Sing

Euphonix Community Choir

Something a little different....but it's all art! On Sunday I took part in The Big Sing in Kingston with the choir Euphonix. Two weeks ago we were given the words to the three songs we would be singing with other choirs in the Market Place.  They were not easy parts and when we came to the rehearsal with all the other choirs we found ourselves lost! Because we only had the music for our own parts we didn't know when we should come in. We were starting to feel the whole thing was a shambles. The songs had also been arranged differently from the originals, just to make things harder.  Anyway, when we came to sing all together in the Market Place we just did our own thing and it went okay because with all those choirs it didn't matter if we lost our places!  The songs were Higher and Higher, Shine (Take That) and Hey Jude.  Thankfully the last one was easy and I really let it rip! I don't have any photos because it was too crowded for my son to take any.  He did get a sound recording of Hey Jude on his mobile but I'm not sure whether it is worth trying to upload it, or even if I can!  The photo above is from one of or own concerts at The Rose Theatre, Kingston.  I am just above the fronds of the plant! Our MD is doing his beat-boxing to one of our songs!