Thoughts on a Thursday – Little Wonder

I have a tiny obsession with macro photos of flowers.

I think part of the allure is that they are so impermanent: if you don’t take the picture when you have a chance that moment is gone.  The same could be said for so many things that I would love to take photos of everything, but that’s not really practical so I specialise 🙂

I’m not very good at these pictures but here’s one I took on retreat in Wales last summer.

The feeling of having to record things immediately is one I’ve been developing for the last few years in writing – I’m sure we all have the tale of ‘the one that got away’; the great story opening or line of poetry that we didn’t write down and it disappeared like a whiff of smoke.  Even with notebooks everywhere, you can’t capture everything!

Sometimes I use photos instead of books.  I use them like a painter would, as a reference point to draw my image.  This works well for me for things like sunsets, the colour of the soil, the shapes carved into a wall; things that require some better description than the off-the-cuff notes I scribble as I wander around.  That’s another benefit of the macro photo too – you see a level of detail you might not have seen in person.

If you want to see what I mean, have a look at some amazing, properly macro, photos here!

Happy writing

EJ

🙂

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Week 103 – Come one, come all

This week has been about beginnings, at least from a writing point of view.  And when you invite one new thing into your life, others seem to follow…

Firstly, I hosted the inaugural writers group for people in the village.  Although not everyone could make it, I was really happy with the event.  We were talking for well over two hours which is much longer than I thought; we all seemed to be inspired by the event; the dog behaved reasonably well and I got to share my excitement about text books and reference materials.  What’s not to love!

In fact, I was so inspired that a few new story ideas popped into my head like tiny flames; the end result has been that I’ve started writing a new story with the intention of creating a novel from its tiny seed.

I still have to complete the revisions to book 2, but I can feel this idea developing, and I want to record it. There is no plan as such, but I know it’s a human interest piece – there is a catalyst for change and we watch someone respond to that catalyst.

But alongside that I recorded two other ideas that have potential.  One is a crime novel, so it’s completely out of my wheelhouse and I can’t see it being a full-length novel at this point – perhaps a novella though.  The other is a light-hearted look at a certain type of lifestyle.

I guess this is a reminder that once I open myself up to inspiration, my brain makes all sorts of connections that I didn’t see before.  I recently read something that said we have 5000 thoughts a day – it’s good to know at least some of these are useful 🙂

As well as new ideas flowing in, I also took my inspired self out of the house to help out at the annual charity flower festival my partner and I support.  As usual, I was tasked with creating floral arrangements, and this year I branched out and did one completely without guidance or support (or a clue what I was trying to do!).  I am pleased to report good feedback; the flowers were beautiful and it’s good to know I’ve done them proud 🙂

I’ve also sought out the needle and thread and had a go at creating some things with fabric.  It’ll be about 100 years before I master complicated things like button holes, but just getting back into making stuff has been a lot of fun.

All in all, this week has been about me leaping from one creative endeavour to another – and I’ve welcomed them all with open arms.

In other news – Instead of just news stories, I though I’d link to some information related to my week…

1. Writers groups need exercises to get the inspiration flowing; here is a list of 15 that any writer could try.

2. The language of flowers is recorded in many places; this wikipedia page is a good starting point.

3. Creating with fabrics (or just knowing a little about them!) can help to explore things like texture, colour and design that may be important in a story.  There are specific qualities of fabrics that could be important.  You may not need to explore these things in the narrative, but they’re good to know about.  This website gives a very brief introduction to natural and man-made fabrics.

And finally – one just for fun!  I found this article which describes a study showing that the smell of chocolate makes people more likely to buy romance novels.  I’d just like the chocolate, myself!

So I’ve covered writing, flowers, fabrics and chocolate – not a bad combination this week 🙂

Happy writing

EJ

🙂

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