Getting Up With the Chickens

This morning, when I got up, my husband Eddie said he was going to start calling me Chicky since I always get up with the chickens.  Of course, his idea of getting up with the chickens is getting up any time before 9:30 a.m.  I told him it was fine if he wanted to call me Chicky.  It so happens that I'm reading a really good book right now by Maeve Binchy titled A Week in Winter and the main character in the book is named Chicky.  She is a very strong woman in the book and I would like to be nick-named after a strong woman.

I keep thinking that I will get down to writing some poems, but I haven't done it yet.  For one thing, I've been trying to finish up making Christmas presents.  I just don't seem to have the time to get started, but I need to carve out a little time every day to do some writing.  I don't know where my inspiration has gone, but I'm going to start writing some found poems in the way that I talked about in my last post.  One of the links I posted yesterday has something cool called Word Mover.  This looks like a great tool to use when constructing a found poem, or any poem really.  It's almost like using the magnetic poetry except you are limiting by the writings that are in the tool.  You could get your magazine or newspaper article, or whatever you are using for your found poem, in front of you, highlight the words or phrases you want to use and then type them into the word mover.  You can move them around in any way  you want to make your poem.  I think I'm going to try that with an article I found that I've already underlined the words I want to use.  I'll report back on how it went.

Update on Word Mover:

I just tried to use Word Mover to construct a found poem and I'm not really excited about it.  For one thing, you have word blocks and once you type in your word and go to the next word block, I couldn't figure out a way to go back and edit it the original word block in any way.  Also, there is not enough room to write a long poem, just a very short one.  So, for me, I think I will just use my word processing program to put in my words and phrases from articles and then move them around.  It's much easier.

Found Poetry

I've often thought about found poetry and I have written a few poems that way.  I think it's a valuable tool, especially when confronted with writer's block which I seem to have right now.  You can go to Google and type in "found poetry" and get all kinds of hits with good information on how to construct a poem.  The basic idea of found poetry is to use almost anything such as a newspaper, a book, a cookbook, instructions for a TV or anything like that to find interesting lines.  Write them down on a separate piece of paper, then go back and rearrange them in a pleasing way to write your poem.  You can use the words and sentences in the same order that they appeared when you found them, or you can add your owns words.  You have to look at the spacing of the lines and words to arrange them in a way you want the poem to read.

Here are a few links to writing found poetry:

Found and Headline Poems

Teacher's Guide Primary Source Set Found Poetry

Found Poems/Parallel Poems

These are just a few links.  As I said above, you can go to Google and typing in "found poetry" and find tons of resources.  I know that I'm going to explore the last link from that list above because it looks really interesting.

On a more personal note, I think I pulled a muscle in my hip day before yesterday.  Earlier in the week, I was down on my hands and knees trying to soak up water from a leak underneath our kitchen sink.  I was sore for a couple of days after that and then day before yesterday when I sat down in my recliner, I must have twisted the wrong way or something and pulled a sore muscle.  Now, I can hardly get up and down without muscle pain.  It's very frustrating, but I'll deal with it.

Very Excited!

Today has been spent doing last minute preparations for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.  My husband and I are going to his mother's for dinner.  She is not well and asked us if we would help her cook, so we are.  Unfortunately, this afternoon I pulled a muscle in my lower left hip.  I had been sore because a few days ago I have been down on my hands and knees and on a stool rearranging underneath my kitchen sink because of a leak.  My hip had been sore from that for a couple of days and then all I did was try to sit down in my recliner and I must have sat on it wrong or something because I could feel it and knew I had pulled something.  Now, I can hardly get on and off the toilet or get up and down out of a chair.  And if I drop something in the floor, forget it.  It'll just have to stay there until my husband can pick it up.  It's very frustrating because I'm very active and I hate being limited.

Earlier this week I sent a letter to Margaret Britton Vaughn telling her how much I love her poetry.  I also sent her a poem and a personal essay that I had written awhile back.  She has a publishing company in Bell Buckle, Tn and she helps poets and writers to write better and to learn about publishing.  She has also published some poets and writer's works before.  I don't have any misconceptions about her publishing my work.  I didn't write to her for that.  I wrote because I really need help improving my writing and I would like to publish a book of poems some day.  I don't ever expect to be on the best seller list.  The only gratification I would get from it would be holding a published work of mine in my hands.  So, this afternoon she called me and told me that she received my letter and that she likes the way I write.  She said she has some suggestions for my story that I sent to her and she wants me to come and visit her after Christmas!  I'm very excited about that.  I know I'm not the first one to visit her and I'm certainly not the first one she has ever given advice to, but I'm really excited about learning more about how I can write better so that maybe at least one story of mine will be published in a literary magazine of some type.  I think that would be very gratifying.  I really don't even care if I get paid or not.  Just being able to say that some of my works have been published somewhere it enough for me.  Also, it would help when I want to submit something for publication to a bigger publishing house that requires you to have been published in many places.  I really hope to be able to visit her.  She told me to keep in touch with her.  I'll probably call her and plan a visit.  Another exciting thing ... she writes song lyrics for Loretta Lynn.

Grab The Book Closest To You ...

Today we woke up to rain.  It rained all night and I sleep very well.  I always sleep well when it's raining at night.  It just seems calming and relaxing.  But, it's raining this morning too, and I think is supposed to for the rest of the day.  I need to get out and go to the mall to walk and I will because I'm losing weight and I don't want to stop doing what works.

Something that I thought about this morning that is a great tool when writing poetry is something I've heard about in the past.  This exercise was posted as something to do during National Book Week.  I've done it before at any time, when I think about it.  In fact, I used to work in a library so I had all kinds of resources for this.  Anyway, the rules are that you grab the closest book to you, turn to page 52, post the 5th sentence. Don't mention the title.  This is what I found from the book that is closest to me this morning:

"You meant driving as fast as you like," Miss Queenie said. "They would have failed you."

It's very interesting to do this.  The following is a short poem that I wrote doing this very thing:

Commitment

A commitment must be honored.

We met up in London for drinks too,

always with other people.

Ah, my heart, trust you to find the silver lining

in this cloud of dust.

He has three children of his own,

all adults now.

He says that he already has

a waiting list.

I stretched my arms, yawned,

then went into the kitchen

and downed a bottle of beer.

Written and Copyrighted by
Sharon King

 

 

It's a very good exercise and helps us to find language for our poetry or other writings.  There is also the idea of found poetry and I'll talk about that in my next post.  Found poetry is great too, but you have to give credit to the original writer.

 

 

Writer's Block

There is something to be said for getting up early. It gives me time to write, read and think before the rest of the world wakes up. Well, I guess there are other people up right now, maybe doing the same thing I'm doing. Or, if they are parents of young children, it's probably alot more hectic at their house than at mine.

I've been spending alot of time with my new friend. I just love her. She and I have alot of the same interests, dolls, art, reading. I don't think she is into quilting the way I am. But, that's ok. I don't expect to find friends who love every single thing that I do. For one thing, I have so many interests. I am intrigued by her daughter-in-law. I have never met her, but she sounds very interesting. She teaches creative writing at our local university and has been published in several journals. She also has a book coming out soon. She has also done readings at various events and places around Chattanooga, Meacham Writer's Conference being one. I've never been to Meacham, but I'm thinking that the next time they have it I might go. It's free, unlike the Southern Literature Conference which is pretty expensive unless you can get in on the student discount, which I have done in the past because I was taking some classes. I still have my student ID, but I don't know how long that ID will be good since they are making to many changes at the college where I used to work, I figure making new ID's will be one of the things they will do soon, if they haven't already. 

But, back to my friend's daughter-in-law. After I found out her name, and learned that she teaches creative writing, I did a search online at the university where she works and there was a link to her blog and I've been reading it. I am very inspired by her blog. She is very honest and open about her life and her struggles with different things, like weight and blood pressure. She's also bipolar and she talks about that too. Also, about her writing and submissions, rejections, etc. I find it all very inspiring. I have some of the same struggles with weight and blood pressure. I really admire her openness and honesty about her feelings about things, including religion. I can't help but want to meet her sometime and one of these days I'm going to tell my friend that I want to. I might be wrong, but I think that the daughter-in-law and I might have some things in common and might be able to have interesting conversations. She said that she and one of her friends do tend to go on about writing. That would really interest me. I can't help but wonder what taking one of her classes would be like. I'm almost tempted to take one as an audit. She wouldn't know me, but that's too close to home because the chances of me one day meeting them is very good because of my friendship with her mother-in-law. One day I'm sure my friend will meet my husband. It's just the nature of friendships. First, you get to know each other and become friends, and then next you start introducing them to your families. I love going to her house. I would love to have her over here, but my house is not nearly as neat and clean as hers. She's mentioned it a couple of times and I've kind of put her off. I might have her over during the holidays when I get everything cleaned up.

After reading her daughter-in-law's blog, I realize more than ever that I want to write something. First, I thought a book, but I don't know if I could hang with it for that long. Then, I thought maybe short stories. That might work. The only thing along those lines that I've written, has been essay type stories based on real life events. I've also written quite a few poems, but I've found that poetry has to come to me and I have to have an inspiration to write those. And, lately I haven't been inspired to write any poetry. But, I'm thinking that the reason for that is probably because I haven't really looked at anything to give me inspiration. For example, found poems are a good way to find inspiration. I guess I really have to put my mind to it, and I haven't done that. Now that I'm retired, there is no reason or excuse for not doing it. I also have th perfect setup for writing. We have the desktop computer in the den and I can find quiet time there to write. I could be just like other writers who retreat to their offices and write for a few hours a day. Although, I don't want to be tied to the computer for very long, I would love it if I could get a story in my head and characters that "tell me the story and all I have to do is write it down" like so many authors say they do. That must be nice, to just be the vehicle and to have it come to you so easily. I know other writers who say they don't write that way at all. And others who talk about writer's block, which I guess is where I am. I seem to be permanently in writers' block. Either that or I just don't have anything to say. So, how can I have such a desire to write, but yet not be able to come up with anything to write? That doesn't make sense. The desire is definitely there, but the material isn't and I'm not sure what to do about that.

Ways To Find Inspiration for Writing

I have been trying to lose weight for my health and also because I just want to look better and feel better.  I've been about 50 pounds overweight for several years.  For exercise, I usually walk at my local mall.  I guess people like me who do that are known as "mall walkers".  Yesterday, I was walking in the mall, and ahead of me I saw a tall, older gray haired lady holding hands with a smaller, shorter gray haired lady who looked older than the first lady.  I'm assuming that it was her mother.  They were also walking for exercise, but they were walking very slowly I'm assuming because of the mother being so fragile.  While I was watching them it occurred to me that maybe the mother was either getting over an illness and was trying to get some exercise to help in her recovery.  I started thinking about how when we are born, we are the babies and our parents take care of us in every way.  They feed us, diaper us, clothe us and take us to our first days at school.  Then we grow up and begin to get older ourselves.  In the meantime, our parents begin to get older and eventually, near the end of their lives, they begin to become like babies again.  They need someone to help feed them, diaper them sometimes, and clothe them.  The parents become the children and the children become the parents.  It's sad when you think about it, but it's just the life cycle.  It's observations like this that inspire me to write poems and stories.

I took a creative writing class once at the college where I used to work.  What we did in the class was write stories or essays and read them out loud in class and our classmates and teacher would critique them.  I wrote a story once about something that I had observed while driving.  One day there was a truck in front of me and I noticed that there was a man and a woman in the truck.  The man was talking and waving his hands around almost as if he were fussing or arguing with the woman.  While he was doing all this, she was sitting as far away from him as she could get and her body language said it all.  She practically had her back to him and had her nose up against the window and you just knew that she was trying to shut him out and wished she was anywhere but there in the truck with him.  It was obviously an argument and I wrote my paper about it and speculated on what they could have been doing and arguing about.  After I read my paper, one of my classmates critiqued it and I don't really remember everything he said, but one thing I do remember is that he felt that watching other people is kind of nosy.  After he finished his critique, our teacher said that that is what writers do.  They observe everything and everybody.  Discreetly of course, but it's how we get our ideas for stories and poems.

I have read many interviews with lots of authors and almost all of them say that they just listen and observe and write down interesting pieces of conversations and things like that to use in a future story or poem.  Also, by reading magazines and newspapers, we can write down interesting words and phrases that inspire us that we want to use.  I don't think that's plagiarizing as long as we don't use the words verbatim and just use them for inspiration.

I mentioned in my first post that I have written some poetry.  One of the things that inspires me, is to use poetry magnets.  I have several sets of the magnets and I have a magnetic board.  Sometimes I just put several words up on the board and move them around until something comes to mind.  It's a very interesting way to come up with a poem.

An Aspiring Writer's New Blog

I love to read.  To read anything.  General fiction, mysteries, poetry, short stories.  I love them all.  I have a burning desire to write.  That's why I named this blog An Aspiring Writer's Thoughts.  Hopefully, I will actually write instead of just writing about wanting to write.  I actually have written some poetry and some essays, although not published.  I really want to publish a few poems and or essays.  I hope in the near future to put up on this blog a list of publishers I would like to submit work to.  Hopefully, this will help you, too, if you start reading my blog and you also want to submit some work.  I found a writer's blog that had a list and I have not yet explored each of the links to the publishers, but I hope to do that very soon. 

One reason I have not submitted very much work is because most of the time there is a reading fee and not all publishers pay for work that is published.  But, that is really not an issue for me.  Yes, it would be nice to actually be paid for my work, but I think more than anything I would like to develop a list of a few publishers that have accepted my work.  At this point, I think I would be happy to just be published.

My purpose for starting this blog is to keep myself motivated to continue to write and submit work.  I will post about writing, but from time to time I may also write a little about my life and other things that are going on besides writing.  But, I will try to stick to the writing theme as much as I can.  Sometimes I just need someplace to go and write about how I feel about things. 

I will try and post links about interesting articles I find about authors, writers and writing.  There is one writer that I just learned about this week.  She lives in Bell Buckle, Tennessee and her name is Margaret Britton Vaughn.  I saw a post about her on one of my friend's blogs.  There is a book of poetry that she wrote titled The Light in the Kitchen Window.  I just ordered a copy of it this week.

 

I don't know much about her since I just learned about her, but she writes in a very simple, easy to understand way.  I really like that.  When I read poetry, I really want to be able to understand it.  I don't want to read it and then try to figure out what in the world the writer was talking about.  I listened to an interview with her the other day and when asked about her style of writing she said that she writes for everyday people and tries to write something they can relate to.  She said she doesn't write for academia and she doesn't write in that language.  I am very inspired by her and I would like to write poetry in the same way.  Very simple language that touches someone's heart. 

 

I also ordered Life's Down to Old Women's Shoes.

 

 

She was voted Poet Laureate of Tennessee in 1999.  The following link goes to her poem titled "Who We Are" that was chosen as the Tennessee Bicentennial Poem and tells a little more about her.

 

Who We Are

 

Here is a link to another blog Writing Without Paper.  This blogger has lots of information on Margaret Britton Vaughn, plus a couple of excerpts of poems from her books.  This will give you an idea of her style of writing.

 

I really want to learn more about Ms. Vaughn and I would love to read everything she has written.  I am really inspired by this writer and her simple way of writing.  I hope to somehow achieve the same style of writing.