I just noticed I passed 2,000 likes today, exactly three months after starting this nonsense. Thank you so much to everyone who reads. There are far more of you than I ever imagined. Roughly half are in America too, which was utterly unexpected, and means I occasionally get to wake up to a lovely comment or two which absolutely makes my day.
As I write when I reached 1,000, ‘likes’ don’t pay bills, or mean anything really, apart from being tiny, vital prods of encouragement to keep going, and that’s all any of us need as writers really isn’t it? Apart from cold, hard cash of course, but since that’s out of the question right now – ‘likes’ are lovely 🙂
I was wondering today what people use as prompts to get them writing. I have tried using some of the many photo-prompt blogs that are around on WordPress, but it’s strange, I find it impossible to write to a photo. There is too much information there that I can’t get away from. I find it restricting, not just for me, but for my imagined reader, who will bring their own reading to the photo before they’ve even read my piece. I think that’s just a failing and mental block on my part, but I did think it was interesting.
Instead, I find just a couple of words or phrases will get me going, whether it’s someone using an odd turn of phrase or an incongruous image, such as poor old ex-banker Keith up a ladder cleaning windows. When I dry up, it’s usually because I haven’t been reading for a few days. Reading is the best source of inspiration I find.
I’m still having a great deal of angst over the poetry I have to submit for the MA. I need to be more bold with it, but it’s difficult when I don’t have the confidence in it as I do prose. I sometimes think some of the 50-word stories I’ve written blur the boundary between poetry and prose, but again, I’m not confident enough to explore that in terms of submission for the course.
Anyway, just some thoughts. Have a great weekend all.
P.S. If you clicked on I Want A War, Give Me A War and found it wasn’t there, I took it down, for the simple reason that 30 minutes after publishing it, it didn’t feel right. I wasn’t happy with it, not for any political or social reasons, I just didn’t like how I’d written it. It wasn’t to a standard I was happy with, so it’s back in the drafts folder.
Just Punch The Clock 