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Which Writing Project Comes Next?

My cat is sitting on my keyboard making this challenging to write. She is purring her pretty paws off in a very contented way, whilst I stretch and strain around her. How simple her life; purr, sleep, eat, hunt, repeat.  Today I am weighing up which project comes next. The cat has her paws on one, is that the one  to choose?  The choices are; look for another offer on my finished novel (I turned down the first), edit and improve the play I wrote last year to promote the collection of poetry, Tidelines, now somewhat stuck it feels interminably at a publishers, or start an entirely new project of which I have two in my head. Both books, one poetry, one non fiction. Both a great deal of work, the poetry book probably the lesser.  How does one choose? Do I go with what I feel like doing, but no doubt will get heartily sick of at times? Back to the comedy and idiocy of the play, which is also useful as it holds several of the poems from the new collection Tidelines. I felt it would be a mor
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Covid and Creativity

I have covid brain fog. Alternatively, I am exhausted after recently having covid, so my brain isn't working well. Either way, I have brain fog. I did write a poem in the middle of covid. This is how it appeared from  my covid ridden body, and exactly how it felt. It is not edited, changed or otherwise improved.  Covid Is like A running rug of Suffocating threads A taking over, of The body's pathways, Flooding them with swollen aching rivers Pulsating corners, It grips and squeezes, runs hot through veins Relentless ruthless searching out Every corner Sends hammers into bones and timpani into joints Sickness into stomach And a bomb To blow up your ear It eats your energy, sucks you dry Demands deference, surrender, a giving in A lowered brainless state of mute acknowledgement It is boss, for now It still is.
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Help - Need Inspiration

I have agreed to write something for the upcoming Hotwells Festival. How exciting is that? And how truly terrifying as I have nothing I prepared earlier.  My throat is throttled with a fluttering starling trying to get out. My brain is like ice cream, frozen. What the f**k is going on??  I'm not usually like this. I have stacks of material. I have stacks of ideas. Usually. Not this time.  Is it something to do with the Hotwells Festival feeling more grown up this time? It had its birth two years ago, a phoenix rising out of lockdown with fiery enthusiasm and a bunch of mates doing an Amazing job. Shoestrings and chewing gum come to mind. And it was brilliant. And this time? Is there an expectation it will all be more slick, polished, perfect?  Or is it simply I haven't written anything and I'm just in a plain old state of panic??
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Finding the Next Project - All About Creativity

How do we find our next project? What sparks it off, gets us going, inspires us? I hear so many people talking about losing their way in lockdown with creative projects, stopping writing or doing art. People with a good track record and a desire to write or paint. What's with the painting in a writing blog?  I attended an all day art workshop recently. The tea and chocolate biscuits were excellent. So was the tutor. He gave us permission to be wrong, to mess up, to make terrible pictures, in other words, to experiment and find out. Quick pictures in mixed media, mixing wet eg water colour, and dry, eg charcoal. Sometimes - much of the time - nothing worked. But it stimulated my brain to let go and try anything, in any order. Finally, in the afternoon, after a morning of about a dozen quick sketches, I slowed down and picked two I enjoyed putting together, ink drawing and watercolour. Bravo. Result. What happened to produce that picture, one I was actually pleased with? Encouragemen
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Mind The Gap

Yikes, last post, last year! In my defence, I have spent the year to date, 2022, wrestling my way through a major operation and trying to get back on my feet. To get fit enough to get to the computer and remember how to log back in... I have been writing - on and off - poems called things like 'Pain'. You get the picture. I've managed a few readings both planned and impromptu, great fun. And I'm back to running my poetry group. So many projects are waiting for my energy and to go out of the door. It felt good to get a radio play off to Radio Bristol last week after their email requesting material. I've also joined an art club for inspiration too. It's great to feel creative again. Watch this space.
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My New Book of Poems - Which Wrote Itself

The next book, that has been sitting on my floor as a pile of papers, is finally in order. It is in my computer in a word document. It suddenly looks like a book. Very exciting! This one was another born out of lockdown, inspired during walks by the sea in my home town. Strangely for such a dreadful, isolated eighteen months, it has been one of my most creative patches ever. Creativity was a way of saving my sanity. Whilst it produced something tangible and beautiful, the output was almost a by product of my need to engage deeply with nature.  Walking every day by the sea, as I did, was a very powerful way to calm myself and lift my mood. The Severn Estuary is a huge expanse of water that rushes in and out at 4 -6 knots, rising and falling over fourteen metres on the biggest tides. The water changes all the time, reflecting the clouds or sun to vary in colour,  anything from deep purple to turquoise blue to a fine mesh of silver. Extraordinary, astonishing and extremely beautiful.  As
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Slight Panic - My Debut with Live Flash Drama

 So it's the run up to a big event... I'm writing Lockdown Unleashed for the new Hotwells Festival. All very exciting but slightly nerve wracking.  I know I can do it. Write it, direct it, but I'm also aware no writer ever knows how an audience will respond to their work until, well, it happens. And it almost certainly depends on the audience. I just  have to push aside all the things that could go wrong. The three linked monologues - same character, each one slightly later in time and slightly different in circumstance, ie further on through lockdown - each have a story and each develop the overall story. A bit like a TV series but these are mini, each monologue about seven minutes long. Something akin to a flash fiction book where very short pieces of stand alone fiction are put together to form a book, which also tells a story overall. I always thought this was mind blowingly clever and I've somehow managed to do it myself with flash drama. Ooo now there's a new
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