Sunday Supplemental #2 (week 170)

I am still on my honeymoon, so here’s someone else’s creativity in place of anything of my own…

Happy – Pharrell Williams 

It’s probably a wee bit over-exposed now but it still makes me want to get up and dance:-).

See you soon!

Happy writing,

EJ

🙂

Read Full Post »

Sunday Supplemental #1 (week 169)

I am officially on honeymoon so here’s something to keep you entertained during my break 🙂

Bruno Mars – Marry You

Have a happy week,

EJ

🙂

Read Full Post »

Week 168 – Slow-motion mind

This is going to be my last proper Sunday post for a while – for about 3 weeks, in fact. My plan to pass the blog over to someone else has hit a small technical hitch – I’ll pre-arrange some posts just so you don’t forget me while I’m gone, instead – as if you could 😉

So, with this being the last Sunday post before my blog holiday, you would hope for something moving, meaningful, or just interesting. However, today is not the day for that. Today my mind is like thick treacle. Today, I am thinking in slow motion.

Instead of any great wisdom or enlightenment I have a few messages for you all.

Firstly – thank you for staying tuned even though, from a writing point of view, I tuned out: I know this blog isn’t supposed to be about wedding shenanigans but you have been very good about it 🙂

Secondly – for anyone attempting NaNo this year – good luck, but don’t sweat it.  Whatever you produce as a result of setting into a pattern of writing will be worth it.

Thirdly – I am sorry I have neglected my blog visits and will get looking and liking again in December

Fourthly – I have been working on poems this week but still have to finish.  That’s all I can bear to say about it!

And that’s it from me for today.  I will be back on Tuesday and then back on the 23rd November with actual updates…

Have a marvellous few weeks,

EJ

🙂

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

Week 166 – Still working on words!

This week, as is usual now, my writing time focussed on poems for the wedding.

I am happy with some much improved ones and am excited that the writing mojo seems to have come back, although still worried about the timescale.  I think about it a little like an assignment in that I can only do the best I can do, in the time available.  I cannot seek – nor will I ever find – perfection, and I have to remind myself sometimes!

But despite the practical elements, it has been really great to dig out poetry books and read (of course I do read poems on occasion, sometimes even my own but you know what I mean!).  This has been a prolonged study, sitting and identifying what works, what doesn’t work, what words cause a reaction.  What, in effect, sums up the feelings I wish to convey, in the most successful way possible.

Writing is perpetual growth, and even though my mind is scattered and my time is frenetic, I can feel my writing developing as I work.

I am more aware now of the language I choose to use for this project, of the joys and shared happiness I want to convey.  I am exploring a writing side of me that has never really been aired (I don’t write romance in any form, really) and I am getting a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction from it.

That I am doing it for my partner, and our family and friends, makes it even more special.

And finally – this week it’s book 56 on the list – Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.  It’s been many years since I read this but I do know I really enjoyed it – not perhaps quite as much as 1984 but a lot more than many other things I have read!  This is definitely on my list of books to re-read, if for no other reason than I feel it deserves to be considered from a different time and place in my life, and not as a direct follow-on from other dystopian stories.

Weirdly I feel a little nervous that, as with 1984, there will be a little too much that’s recognisable for me when I look again.

A short post today, I know – but it’s found me full of joy in writing, and that’s always a good place to be 🙂

Happy writing,

EJ

🙂

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

Week 165 – Picking poems

This week I haven’t got a whole lot further with the table poems – I have resigned myself to a last-minute rush.

I have, however, been investing time and money in poetry anthologies to give me some inspiration. This has been helpful, and frustrating, in equal measure.

I am very particular about the language of poetry shared in a formal setting – there are some terms and ideas I simply don’t want to parade in front of my extended family and friends. You can call it prudishness, or self-consciousness, if you like; I firmly believe that public, family occasions should be treated as such, and the language used should reflect the audience.

This is a very roundabout way of saying that lots of the love poetry I have read is very sexual, and that is not a road I am planning to travel in my writing for our big day. There are some beautiful poems, with beautiful sentiments, which are rendered unusable because of an explicit reference here, or an unambiguous metaphor there.

Of course I could cut lines out, call it an excerpt – but poems don’t generally improve with having parts of themselves ripped out. So the search continues for poems I love unreservedly or that fill me with the inspiration I seek to finish what I’ve started.

One way or another, poetry will be part of our day.

In other news – I am falling behind a little in checking the 100 novels list so I’ll simply say that I haven’t read book 54 – The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett or book 55 – As I lay dying by William Faulkner and I’m not particularly likely to any time soon.  Maybe when I’m pulling together my reading list for next year I’ll revisit these, specifically As I Lay Dying as the sense of a lost way of life seeping from the pages can be very affecting.

And finally – I wanted to share this article detailing the inspiration behind the 6 shortlisted stories for the Man Booker prize.  As a writer, knowing where and how inspiration grows is important – as is understanding what struggles other writers go through to bring those ideas and concepts to life.  We are all hunting for the right word, the right phrase, the strength of a sentence to put forth the image we want to share.  Whenever you feel disheartened, that’s a great thing to remember.

Until next time – happy writing,

EJ

🙂

Read Full Post »

Thoughts on a Thursday – Break

It’s about a month until my wedding and I am well aware that between the planning, work, blogging and all the other things I do with my time nothing is getting the attention it needs.

Soooooo – I have decided to have a Thursday break, and leave my thoughts posts to one side until I come back from my honeymoon, toward the end of November.

I’m sure I will have plenty of thoughts between now and then but suspect they will focus on flowers, or table plans, or whether or not I have enough table confetti – because let’s be honest here, weddings do make the most bizarre things important enough to wake you up at night!

My dog, also having a break.  It’s a hard life…

I will leave you with a quote I really like, and which I really need to remember!

The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil.

Thank you Cicero, for a quote that covers my reason for stepping back, my writing choices and a little bit of Bloggers for Peace all at once!

Until next time – happy writing

EJ

🙂

Read Full Post »

Week 150 – Time Management and Targets.

This week promised myself I’d write another 2000 words, and thankfully I’ve done it.  However, my writing is seriously taking a backseat in life: not only have I got charity events to help arrange and local volunteering to do, but I’ve also got my new work, plus looking for another temporary role, plus the big event I am planning all taking chunks of my time.

And now’s as good a time as any to say that the big event is my wedding, in just over 4 months! 🙂

As I’m sure you can imagine, writing is getting lost in the mix (despite huge support from people around me – my partner, mum, big sis and SC all deserve a special shout-out here alongside lots of others who have offered to help in many different ways).  It’s the one thing that I don’t have a set date to get done so from a time management point of view it’s the easiest thing to drop.

Back in the mists of time (2010) when I decided to take a career break to write, I did so because I never found the time to do any writing at all.   It wasn’t just that I didn’t have time – lots of writers have jobs and write – but that I didn’t have the capacity within myself to do it.  I don’t want to be in that position again and I think I have put enough of a framework in place to keep it going, but it is going to be at a pretty slow pace.

So from now on I’m going to start working on my time management much more stringently.  I have set myself a target to write at least 2000 words a week from now until I get to the end of the current novel, and from then I will reassess.  I will put aside those things that can wait until after the wedding – things like courses I want to take, or some of the extra books I might want to read for the challenge.  I will make sure that I log writing time again (the timesheet is embarrassingly empty of data at the moment) not to make me feel I am not doing enough, but to remind me that I am still a writer.  I will focus my writing on the third book, and just keep going until it’s done.

It has been suggested that now would be a good time to upload book 1 as an e-book, as I am not sending it out at the moment; I will make a decision on this soon and let you know!

So there we have it – life comes in waves and I’m riding a big one now!  But if I keep going I’ll get to where I want to be, even if it takes longer than expected.

And finally – I missed book 39 last week: The History of Mr Polly by HG Wells which I haven’t read and in light of everything I’ve just written, is not going on my list!  I haven’t read book 40: Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm either and the same applies!

Happy writing,

EJ

🙂

 

Read Full Post »