Job Applications as Creative Writing

Must have done a good job on the application I spent so long completing, as not only did I get an interview but I also got the job!!

Yesterday was my last day working within Payroll. Am off to the bright lights of Choose and Book next week - also within the NHS. Although I am nervous about moving jobs I feel it is the right thing to do. Payroll have only been able to offer me contracts of 3 and 4 months. The new job has a contract of 12 months. I am hoping this will calm my worries about money; while at the same time giving me a few more hours to concentrate on my writing. The old job was 20hrs and the new one is 18.5hrs. This means I will have a Wednesday morning to myself; as Jamie will be in nursery, before starting work at 12.30pm

McKenna on Procrastination

Most people who procrastinate aren't lazy - they're afraid of failing. You can mitigate your fear of failing by always calculating the upside and downside of any decision.

One of the keys to making good decisions is being in a good state. If you are upset, nervous, angry or frightened, its not a good time to make a decision.

Paul Mckenna www.paulmckenna.com
I Can make You Smarter, Bantam Press (2012) www.rbooks.co.uk/

I can make you smarter....??

Have just skim-red 'I can make you smarter' by Paul McKenna. I am afraid that, at the moment, I don't really have the time to practice what he preaches but I can see where he is coming from.

Intelligence is not something we are simply born with, it is more about how we view our own intelligence and of course practice, practice, practice.

He says; We have all been programmed to believe certain things about how smart we are, how smart it is good to be, and what we are and aren't capable of learning. These unconscious programs are like hypnotic suggestions, limiting our behaviour until they become self-fulfilling prophecies.

There are only 3 reasons people fail to learn new things - they are in an unproductive state of mind, they are using an ineffective strategy, or they give up too soon.

Poetry...

'Poetry is the music of being human. A good poem is a gift to the world.'

Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate quoted in Writers' News: April 2012 www.writers-online.co.uk/

Unfortunately, not everyone understands poetry. I took a 'work in progress' to the Lindum Scribes on Tuesday night and a number of the members commented that they did not see it as a poem but rather as prose as it did not rhyme. Luckily some of the others members made a few constructive comments and I know what I need to do - cut it back and tighten the images.

I still feel I am loosing out by attending a mixed writers group. I mean mixed in the sense of all types of writing accepted. One of the members read out a piece of over 2000 words and mine - including the title - was 144 words. I got to read out one poem and had all of about 10 minutes in the spotlight compared to a lot longer for some of the others.....

Nothing that happens...

Open your mind to new experiences, particularly to the study of other people. Nothing that happens to a writer - however happy, however tragic - is ever wasted.

PD James quoted in Writers' News: April 2012 www.writers-online.co.uk/

If you were to die...

Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

PJ O'Rourke

quoted in Writers' News: April 2012 www.writers-online.co.uk/

www.pjorourke.com/

Blow to the head....?

If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for?'

Franz Kafka

quoted in Writers' News: April 2012 http://www.writers-online.co.uk/