Published. But at what cost?

Alma - a member of The Poison Pens - has been lucky enough to make money from her writing this month as her story You Naughty Dog! appears in My Weekly (15th-21st May).

At the group meeting on Saturday,  we had a lively discussion about the amount of changes that get made to your precious writing, and the fact that when you are a new writer you need to accept this in order to be published!  Only later can you perhaps insist on no changes.

The story that appeared in My Weekly is quite far removed from the original one which Alma had submitted; having been asked to do 10 rewrites and then the editorial staff still changing the story. 

Also, the picture that they put with the story was of a scruffy terrier when the original story was written about a Labrador!

She did get paid £80 but at what cost?

Confused? You will be!

Poetry! You either love it or hate it or don't understand it!

On Saturday I took a couple of re-worked poems to the (group I call) The Poison Pens.  Comments made were insightful but my head is still spinning as I don't know which way to turn with them.  I have rewritten both poems a couple of times and at each reading (Poison Pens and Lindum Scribes) different comments have been made.

I suppose I felt that some members were taking my poems too literally.  When I did poetry as part of my A Level English we read and re-read many famous poets - looking for the 'hidden' and 'double' meanings.  I like to think that my poems have many layers and can mean different things to different readers.  But do they?

I think the best course of action is to have a week or so away from these poems and come back with a fresh outlook.  Perhaps I will then see what everyone means, or perhaps decide that my own meanings are the only ones that matter.....

What I don't intend to do however, is take them back to the group.  I think they have had enough of them and anyway I promised something a bit more upbeat next time. 

The beginning is one half of the deed

Lewis was back on our screens this week and with it was a piece in The Radio Times on Colin Dexter.  I was very impressed when he said:

"The only thing I ever learnt in life, my saving grace, is initium est dimidium facti - the beginning is one half of the deed.  Most people leave everything until tomorrow, but I just write, forget how bloody awful it is, and next day it doesn't seem half bad."

I also love his best crossword puzzle clue: Bar of Soap?  Answer: Rovers Return!!

Use Your Experience: Bead Roberts at the Lindum Scribes 2012

In August 2009 I was lucky enough to attend a workshop run by Bead Roberts,  see my write up at:  http://theonlyconsequence.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/bead-roberts-at-lindum-scribes.html  so jumped at the chance to attend another workshop run by her.

This workshop - organised by The Lindum Scribes - was great for getting attendees to think of ideas for their writing. 

Bead started with the premise that all stories / novels require: Experience / Observation / Imagination and she asked us all to delve into our personal lives / memories and come up with tales to tell, which can then be used as the basis for a wider story.

The wealth of experience / imagination within The Lindum Scribes was, as usual, amazing.  We heard stories of 'Mattress Alley', beloved childhoods, wealthy upbringings and not so rich home lives.  We were treated to some wonderful images of the houses that people had lived in and the stories behind them.  It was great to have a variety of ages in attendance as it showed how things have changed over the last few decades.  We went from post war living right up to the present day.

As usual we were reminded of the need to include all 5 senses; which was good as this is something I do need to be reminded about!

Previous to the workshop I had already put together a list of 'Resources'; a breakdown of items that could be used to spark off ideas.  This includes all information stored in the loft; which includes most of the letters that anyone has ever sent me (still hoping an ex will become mega famous so I can spill the beans!), diaries I wrote while at college, information collected from previous jobs and studies, books on a million subjects, scrap books, not to mention my collection of 'writing' resources, as well as a mountain of photograph albums which always bring back old memories!!

Recently I saw a competition for a 400 word story.  The workshop certainly sparked off a number of ideas and I hope to have time to put together something to take to the next meeting of the Scribes in June.

The Lindum Scribes website also has a write up of the evening at: http://www.lindumscribes.org/EVENTS.htm

Planned Neglect

Came across this via the Action for Happiness FaceBook status / page:
http://ranchobernardo.patch.com/articles/five-ways-to-stay-present-and-appreciate-your-kids and I have reprinted the article by Abi Cotler O'Roarty on my other blog at: http://grumpymumtobe.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/5-ways-to-stay-present-and-appreciate.html

However, the article mentions Planned Neglect: I once asked an octogenarian artist Abi Cotler O'Roarty says, how he managed to produce so much art over the years. He told me about something he called “planned neglect.” He said that he had to force himself to ignore some of the household chores that needed to get done every single day in order to prioritize his art. All these years later, nothing bad has happened to him as a result of letting laundry and dishes pile — and the work he had to show for this seemed stunningly fulfilling.

As a stay-at-home mom (the article goes onto say) I find one of the biggest challenges to staying present with my kids are of the demands of the home. But lately I’ve been trying to lower the standard of what I need to have done each day in order to feel that I’m taking care of my home. Sometimes breakfast dishes don’t get done until I am cooking dinner. Sometimes the house is not all the way picked up at the end of the day. Becoming more relaxed about domesticity has really helped me not feel like I need to constantly pull away from the present moment, whatever it holds.

I think Planned Neglect is something; that as a writer and a mother, I could really get used to!!

If you start with a bang....

If you start with a bang, you won't end with a whimper.'
T.S.Eliot

Quoted in Writers News (www.writers-online.co.uk) June 2012