Spring has Sprung

‘If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? – Percy Bysshe Shelley

Spring has arrived the last hurrah of Winter, and our spirits awaken, from a long Winter’s slumber.

Branches that were days ago bare start to bud with new growth, and birds sing with new purpose.

Even in the times we’re experiencing, we feel the stirrings of hope, and renewal.

Over the long Winter season, we sowed soulful seeds of gratitude, order, simplicity, and harmony into our lives.

Now its time to harvest an authentic gathering of contentment, and abundance.

‘Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the sense but the soul.’

– Oscar Wilde

 

Karen Gribbin 
https://www.instagram.com/studiocone10/

We can now interpret, and experience the world through our senses. Our ability to smell, taste, hear and touch.

More and more we need to look after ourselves. Go for the walk, eat a good breakfast, stop rushing around, take time to think and rejoice in the small things.

For the next two weeks, I’m asking you the pause a moment each day and marvel at the natural gifts given to us.

Today, I ask that you look at the blue sky, hear the birds sing their love songs, and let the fruits of the earth linger on your tongue, reach out and embrace those you love, or if this is not possible in person, given them a call or send them a message.

Ask the Spirit to awaken your awareness to the sacredness of your sensory perceptions.

Don’t be too busy.

Don’t put it off.

'To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exit, that is all.'  - Oscar Wilde

If we can’t give ourselves even an hour per day to ourselves, then we need to rethink what we are doing to ourselves and our relationships.

Karen Gribbin https://www.instagram.com/studiocone10/

Take time to have coffee with friends, cooked breakfast on Sundays, curl up and read a book. Care for yourselves. 

Live, don't just exist. 

Where Do We Get Ideas?

 Are you sitting there looking at a blank page? Yes, I mean You, who are reading this.

 If the answer is Yes, then stop right now, staring at a blank page will not help, if you don’t have a story idea.

We expend to much anxiety over finding a great story idea.

Karen Gribbin https://www.instagram.com/studiocone10/

"I have nothing to write about.”

 “I got nothing exciting to say.”

“I don’t know what to do to develop an idea.”

 I’ll let you into a secret, there is infinite material for stories, it needs not be new or different, and can be developed in any manner of ways.

Experienced writers find ideas from just about everything around them, and so can you.

We pull ideas from dreams, conversations, observations, images, newspaper items. Café watching doesn’t only give you characters, story ideas can come from there as well. Music themes, walks in the country, sentences from other books.

You could even mine taste sensations, a lost memory, a train trip in winter, journaling, or 500-word exercises.

Many of my own ideas come from smaller writing exercises or newspaper headlines, or a combination of two or more situations, that come together at right moment.

Karen Gribbin
 https://www.instagram.com/studiocone10/

Writer’s ideas often sit dormant for years until, that right moment comes along.

Always write down your ideas, when you think them, you may never use them, but they’ve arrived, believe me when I say ‘they won’t come again.’ Write, write, write.

New writers are often told to ‘write what they know,’ which is fine up to a point. Certainly, write about your own experiences and familiar subjects, yet understand they may not be interesting to your reader.

You ‘ll certainly need to use your imagination to develop drama, actions, and conflict into your stories.

Another mistake new writers make when drawing on experiences is they report what really happened. No one wants to hear what really happened, your readers want to see what happened.

Show not tell. Your readers are intelligent people, they can tell their own stories.

For me a story/novel needs to take me out of myself to another world, another life, another year.

What I want in a novel is the escape, the tears, the empathy with characters. All these emotions are more important than the telling.

Below is a list of idea sources.

·         Newspaper headlines/items

·        Conversations

·         Walks in the country

Karen Gribbin https://www.instagram.com/studiocone10/

·         People’s mannerisms

·         Anecdotes

·         Images

·         Paintings

·         Music

Try any of these ideas and see what you can do with them. Set yourself a task to first write 500 words, you’ll know by then if you want to expand the idea into something bigger.

LIVING THE DREAM

 A few months ago, I made a life changing decision.

It was like an epiphany. At 62 years old, suddenly I thought, why am I waiting until 67 for a pension that will in all probability not be there for me at the end.

 I came to the conclusion, that life was too short to keep putting my dreams on hold.

Louise Hay 

 What did I do?

 I left my paid employment to follow those dreams.

To write, take photos, cook good food, and travel.

 I would finally work from home, I’ve worked from home before (we all have over the last 2 years), the difference this time, working from home, means my own work for a change.

I put my faith in myself with a feeling that all would work out, and before I knew it, a freelance contract was offered by our local newspaper.

When you put your spirit on the line; the Universe always kicks in.

Why am I telling you this, because I want you to know, there's never a time to be ready to follow your dreams, you just have to do it. 

There’s never a better time like the present, and financially, I’m sure it’ll all work out.

It’s been the best change I could’ve made for myself. I can see and feel the difference in a short 8 weeks.

It wasn’t that I didn’t love my job, it’d just ceased being the best option for me.

Now, I’m doing what I love.

Interacting with people and writing about their experiences for the paper, never thought my business card would say Reporter.

 Being freelance, I can do as little or as much to suit my own situation.

 After a lifetime of working for others. It was time to put my own foot forward for a change.

 Time for me. Sounds wonderful. It is wonderful.

 The remainder of 2021 will be used to heal and rest, and work towards my goals for 2022.

My Instagram page is up and running , growing all the time. Check it out at  https://www.instagram.com/studiocone10/  its all about having a good time, being healthy, food, photography, and life in general.

One of those goals is to produce an online creative writing course, the other to write a collection of short stories. I might even finish my long struggling novel.

Exciting times indeed.

Watch this space for follow-up plans.

Reading: Pleasure or Addiction

I was affronted the other day when a friend asked if my Reading addiction interfered with my productive life...

Welcome to 2021

Here we are in 2021. How many of you doubted we'd ever see the back of 2020, yet here we are, with panting breath, waiting for whatever 2021 throws at us. 

Because we are all feeling the New Year fibes, all starting over shiny as new pennies.  I thought I’d talk a bit about finding time to write.