A proverb

Yesterday I did a lot of blogging which felt really helpful and positive.

I wanted to set myself a little writing exercise to do on the spot,  just to get another part of my creative brain working.

So after making sure I had printed up all of the notes from Lynnes' "Telling tales" course, I decided to start reading them from the start like a book.

In week one our exercise was to write a contemporary story based on a proverb, or fable, or parable.

I have a bible in my office, which I grabbed and decided to open it on Proverbs and which ever one caught my eye, write a contemporary story.

I opened it on chapter 29 v 18 "Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint.."

I had fun.

I went down the 'sister with restraint, dealing with sister without it' road. The visionless sister, you could say.

It flowed and I enjoyed myself.

It doesn't always flow like that, and Lynne's taught a lot about planning, which I found helpful and good for recognising there doesn't have to be any writers block. I think on this occasion I felt clear about what I wanted to say and why, very quickly.

Perhaps now I'll implement some of the planning things to get the structure going on, and the narrative clearer.  It may need to be longer too, and my theme explored.

Given what I wrote yesterday about root themes, I think this one is possibly helplessness. It does however have humour in there.

I was thinking women's magazines, and truly a lot of my stuff would be a little gloomy for them.

I seem to explore loss a lot in my writing, and things like addiction. In my 20's I wrote a lot of comedy though, so I'd like to see a return to that this year.

I love the way Lynne has helped me see the ways in which a person can become a writer, and the discipline one can learn and implement, so that I am not reliant on 'flow', or limited to only writing what I feel inspired to write.

I like the idea of writing for a particular marketplace.  Of the discipline of using my skill to meet a particular need. It feels very businesslike, and I love a bit of that.

Guess what? I'm starting to believe I can do this! (re read this line Kel, on your doubting days!)