Our lovely schnauzer Aust Ch Holkschter Rangler Jane is gone. I came home yesterday to find she had died. Goodbye, and thank you.

Poetry as Therapy

I have written about this before in many places, and spoken to many people about the benefits of sorting out your head through creative writing. I know it has worked for me, and I know it has worked for other people.

At my writing group we have people with their own skills and their own issues. All of us use our writing to look at the world and at our own lives in some way.

That is what creative writing is, looking at life as we see it and sometimes gaining more control. Some see it as comedy, some tragedy, and these viewpoints affect the kind of writing we create. It doesn't matter whether what we write will ever become a best-selling novel or a much acclaimed poetry collection. What matters is that we are becoming surer in what we think, and we become more whole as human beings.

A website I recommend to others go is one that a writing group member has mentioned several times to the group. I visited the site recently and I was impressed. Anyone interested in writing poetry, even if they don't have any deeper issues they wish to explore, can do the poetry writing exercises and perhaps create something new and special in ways they may not have written before.

The website is Poetic Medicine Institute. It works for me and it can work for you too. We all find our inspiration for our creativity in our own ways and this website has certainly helped me with my creativity. I wrote a poem within a few minutes of looking at the first poetry exercise, and I went places with the poem I would not have gone if I had just sat down with only pen and paper to write it, with nothing there to guide me. Having a list of words to choose from, words given to you by another, leads you to new places.

I strongly believe these new places are already there in our heads, hidden until a light is shone on the darkness and the words can come out and begin to make connections. Connections lead to more connections and can lead to clarity, or at the very least the connections will lead to things to think further on. They lead to becoming more whole as a human being.

Thought for the Day

What you think you know and what you actually know may be two completely things.


I am studying and one of my fellow students has very strong opinions on things. She thinks she knows lots of things and doesn't mind telling us what's what. If I thought she was wrong, and respectfully told her so, she would argue with me on the matter for as long as I wanted the argument to continue.

The argument wouldn't actually go for very long, because I have realised there is no point trying to make this person see any value in my point of view, because they think I am wrong, and they are right. This would possibly be a worry for me, if I hadn't had my viewpoint endorsed by others more knowledgeable than both me and the other person.

My point here is this. If you find yourself having pointless arguments with others, get endorsement first and if people who know agree that you are right and the other person is wrong, give the argument away. Some people are so ignorant that it would take a lifetime to teach them how to think, and unless you are getting paid to teach them, forget it.

Find a better way to spend your time - banging your head against the brick wall of the other person's ignorance is a waste of your time and theirs.

Creating my Way to Laziness

One of the problems with being a creative person is that you can come up with millions of reasons why you haven't done what you are supposed to have done.

If you have the creative/lazy combination, like I do, it is difficult to settle down and just get stuff done. Writing a list and prioritising things can help, but my lists sometimes end up being poems I don't care enough about, and then I get guilty, then I start doing something else, something else and something else. In the end nothing really happens, and another day fritters away. Sometimes that poem can turn into something useful though, so it's not a complete loss.

If you really care about getting a thing done, you have to be prepared to ignore the things that interfere with that one thing. Ignoring things can have side-effects, so make sure the one thing is important enough to you to make it worthwhile.

If the one thing you want to get done is say, finishing a craft project, and the thrill of finishing it will be something wonderful, go for it. But if getting it done will just be ho-hum, another rubbish thing crossed off the list, well, why were you doing it in the first place? People these days are always busy. Rushing off somewhere, doing a million things, but so little of the rush and bother is worth the effort involved. Think about what you are doing with your life. Are you benefitting from what you do? Rethinking how you are living can lead to progress.

If you are a wife and mother, as I am, feeding the family is important, and that must happen. Writing my novels is not as important as nurturing my family is, so writing doesn't happen. But what does happen is millions of little bits of nothing. As I am writing this post, I'm thinking that I could easily be spending this time working on the second draft of "Eth dil (working title)", hmm.

I think I've written nearly enough of this post, to summarise: If you are going to be creative in avoiding work, you are destroying yourself. Know what means the most to you and your life, and do that first.

How to become a writer

What are your writing goals? Make a list of them.
People write for different reasons. If you want to become a writer, focus on your own writing goals, not your teacher’s goals, or your parent/spouse’s goals. If you want to be a writer, you are the one who has to do it, so the goals that will work and the ones that you want to achieve.

It is like giving up smoking, most people don’t manage to quit smoking until they decide for themselves that they want to quit. They decide to give it up, giving themselves good reasons to do it, and it helps them focus on their goal when the going gets tough.

There are many reasons people may want to become a writer. Some enjoyed writing at school, then gave it away when life took over their spare time. Some people have a message they would like to share with others. Your reasons for wanting to write will help you decide on the writing goals that matter.

Your own goals are personal to you, and are the goals that will matter the most to you. This means that your own goals, not anyone else’s reasons, are the ones that matter.

How can you organise your life to take your writing life forward?
Are there things standing in your way, that impede your progress? What can you do to clear the way?

Make a list of the things that get in your way when you want to write, then list ideas that will help you deal with those impediments.

Time is often stated as a reason people cannot write as much as they want to. So write time in your list and then think of ways to get more time. Do you commute to work? You can write as you ride the bus or train.

Do you have appointments that take up your time? You can try having a notebook with you all the time, and write in the snippets of waiting time you have.

Television is a great time stealer. Do you really need to spend so much time string at the screen. That notebook can come in handy here too. Sit in front of the screen, sure, but have pen and paper there too. You might find a story idea in a mouthwash advertisement. Write it down, it could be the beginning of a novel or short story.



Onward!
Now that you have your goals on writing in front of you, and your ways of organising your life mapped out, it is time to get writing. It can be difficult at first, and many people have found help in finding a writing group.

If you think this may help you, seek out a supportive group reasonably close to you, or at least easy to get to. The people there will understand what you are trying to do, because they are dealing with the same things.

Finding other writers and realising they are people like you, makes it easier to believe you too can become a writer.