I am so proud of myself...

So proud, I even made an announcement on FaceBook; Joanne is is proud of herself. She has started writing again. I have followed the advice given in the last entry and yesterday wrote 5(yes 5) 10 word stories to describe things that happened in my day. I also wrote 2 Tanka's; which are longer Haiku's with a pattern of 5 7 5 7 7 syllables as opposed to 5 7 5 for a Writing Magazine www.writingmagazine.co.uk competition and I have just entered 3 stories into the Arvon Foundation Six Word Story competition www.arvonfoundation.org/p225.html. The competition is based on the literary fact that Ernest Hemingway said that his best piece of writing was a six word story - 'For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.' Lets see if I can keep the momentum going....

Other ways to express your creativity

Just been having a quick look through www.timetowrite.blogs.com/ which is always full of good stuff and came across some ideas for keeping your creativity flowing - even when you don't have time to write. See http://timetowrite.blogs.com/weblog/2010/08/keep-your-writing-chops-alive-even-when-you-dont-have-time-to-write.html

Find other ways to express your creativity. For example, you could:
* write a haiku every day.
* write a short short short story--set a word maximum like 25 words or even ten words. Remember Hemingway's shortest short (sad) story: "For sale: baby shoes. Never used." If you draw a blank, pick three words at random from a magazine and build your story around those.
* Write a ten-words-maximum portrait of someone you saw on the street that day: "Dapper businessman with umbrella and scowl."

I think I might keep this in my diary in an attempt to prompt me into some creativity....

How Grass (or reverting back to our childhood) Helps Creativity

From AUGUST 2010 BRAINSTORM & FOCUS E-BULLETIN http://www.jurgenwolff.com/

The Belfast Telegraph reports: "A hotel chain is installing grass floors into some of its conference rooms in a bid to boost the creativity of workers. The living turf floors will become de rigueur in a number of Crowne Plaza hotels across the UK. It is hoped the wacky idea will inspire mental flights of fancy during normally dull conferences... Angela Whitlock, author of Walk on the Grass, said: 'Research has shown that by the age of 25, as much as 98% of our creativity has vanished. The look and feel of the grass is said to remind guests of their childhood and therefore free them of societal barriers that restrict creativity. Crowne Plaza's initiative is perfect because it breaks down the self-imposed rules that prevent us from achieving our full potential.'"

ACTION: You don't need to put turf or even Astroturf on your office floor, but do consider making some changes from time to time that wake you up to surroundings that you barely notice anymore. You could use posters or pictures, big plants, flowers, sounds of nature, or anything else that wakes your brain.

Been a bit sickly....

Where has August gone already? I have a spare 5 minutes while Jamie is (hopefully) having a long nap. Unfortunately, I have been neglecting my blog. Chiefly this is because both me and Jamie got a terrible cough /cold, and then I had just about recovered and I decided it would be a good idea to eat something with mould on!! I remember thinking; 'It will be alright' but unfortunately it wasn't!!

Today and yesterday I have been trying to get to grips with all the jobs that I have neglected and are now screaming to be done. And then there is the small matter of an interview to prepare for on Thursday....

Normal Service will be Resumed Shortly (I promise!)....

Not enough time??

Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein."


Life's Little Instruction Book, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Quoted at: www.timetowrite.blogs.com/