Week 136 – Filling in some blanks!

This week, I’ve tried to fill in some blanks in my to-do list; it goes back a while so am feeling a little better for it, but I am a bit frustrated not to have finished off more!

Firstly, I chased my outstanding responses from agents.  It’s always a bit unnerving – there’s a comfort in not knowing – but I also want to make sure I have explored the options in full.

Then I prepared some more submissions to go out – I had intended to hold off due to the competition but decided that the likelihood of winning was so small that waiting was simply a way to waste a few months.

Unfortunately the requirements are a little different so I have had to re-work my synopsis, but at least it’s done!

I’ve also been revisiting some early writing exercises.  This might seem a bit weird when I’m supposed to be planning my next book, but I wanted to try freewriting my story line to see if it would help me answer a few questions I have.  It’s a work in progress but if it works I’m going to try this approach for my characters too.  I know who they are and what they want but I need to make them live a little.

This idea came about when I was looking for exercises for the next writing group; I hope the group find the exercise as useful as I always have…

So that’s a start of my to-do list being done; here’s hoping for another few ticks next week!

In other news – I missed book 25 (Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat) of the list – I haven’t read it but it sounds light enough to try after the one I’m just finishing off so I’ll see if I can download it.  We’ve now reached book 26, The Sign of Four, by Arthur Conan Doyle.  Again, I haven’t read it and I’m not convinced I’ll enjoy a full-length Sherlock story but I have got it and I will give it a go sometime soon.

Also – Recently one of my cousins posted a link about speed-reading, and then I saw this article, and I felt obliged to talk about it!  The purpose of the various bits of software is to get you through a book as quickly as possible. Now, I generally read pretty fast, but the speed of these things is ridiculous and I don’t understand the purpose for most people – why rush a good book and finish in an hour or two, and not have taken on board the ideas, concepts, motifs etc…  It might be useful for people behind on their deadlines I guess – but maybe not for people who read for pleasure and like to linger in a comfy chair with a packet of biscuits and their latest tome!

And finally – I’d like to say hi to all my new followers – well, all my followers actually!  I really appreciate your support and encouragement as the blog undergoes another round of changes 🙂

I hope you are all enjoying the new Thursday posts and the more in-depth challenge updates on Tuesdays – please do let me know what you think!

Until Tuesday,

Happy writing,

EJ

🙂

Read Full Post »

Relationships – a Bloggers for Peace post

This, I’m afraid to say, is a little rushed due to the submission work.  I was intending to share a poem about love, but I decided it’s too personal.  Instead, I created a very short freewrite about peaceful moments I have experienced.

Quietness, a sense of stillness.  We can sit, our hands touching, and say nothing.  There’s not always a need for words, not always a need to be the loudest.   We can sit, leaning together, the dog curled up on the sofa next to us, and be our little family.  We can sit, your arm around me or my head on your shoulder, and feel comfort.  We can sit, and just be.

Peace in relationships doesn’t have to be about a couple, of course – it could have been about siblings, friends, parents and children – but to me, peace is always quiet, it’s always stillness.  It was the same in earlier peace freewrites too: these ideas instantly come to mind because I value them so much.

That got me thinking – peace might be completely different for someone else.  It might be the moment before a bungee jump, or the sound of your child laughing, or a hug from your best friend when you’re feeling low.  So maybe it’s not about peace in relationships exactly; maybe it’s two, or three, or five people who all value the same thing.  Maybe it’s about sharing your own peace.

And maybe we feel peaceful because we’ve found that connection.

So freewrite about your own peaceful moments, and see what you discover!

Happy writing,

EJ

🙂

Read Full Post »

Growing – a Bloggers for Peace post.

I thought I’d do an extra B4Peace post as there’s a new webpage for you to visit if you are interested.  There’s a saying that I think sums up the Bloggers for Peace ethos – from little acorns, mighty oaks grow.  Already it’s spread to over 70 bloggers from one original blog post – that’s not bad going, is it?!

This has got me thinking about how – and what – I write.   Poetry is what I write when I have emotions or experiences I want to express in some way; from the joy of a wedding to the sadness of loss, an afternoon spent on a sunny beach or looking at hundreds of books that once belonged to my grandparents and now live in my house.  There is no particular message there – it I really had to sum one up, I suppose it would be something along the lines of ‘look, and listen, and take notice of what’s around you’, because you have to be aware of the world to write about it!

However, I would say that both my novels are about personal growth (if you hold the pages upside-down and squint!) because they are about how people respond to difficulties, to change, to challenge.

So, as a little challenge to myself, I decided to do a freewrite on the idea of peace so I could make a poem of it.  I’ll share the poem when it’s ready for public consumption (I won’t say finished; every poem I’ve ever written could be amended every time I read it but I have to stop somewhere!) and if I remember, I’ll link back to this post so they can be found from each other.

This is the result of my freewrite.  I gave myself three minutes and I did it straight onto the computer so it’s short and sweet…

Growing peace.  Look inside, find out where peace lives: heart, mind, stomach.  Is it a perception, or an ideal?  Does it grow with time, like a tree, or does it mature like a cheese?  How can it be shared – is it malleable enough to fit all?  Does it mean the same thing to everyone we meet?

Religion, or not? Belief system, perhaps.  It is what we feel in our quietest moments, when we are alone, and our eyes are shut, and no other emotion is pushing it to one side.  Peace is what we seek, and why we hope.

I don’t really know what the cheese reference was about, maybe I fancied some brie!  I can’t imagine it’ll turn up in that form in the poem but you really never know with poetry, it could go anywhere!

Happy writing

EJ

🙂

Here are some more peace-related posts that you may like:

Ellyn Baker-Discovering Both Sides of The Story

Inspire the Idea

Heartflow2013

CardCastlesintheSky

Read Full Post »