SOLC- Slice of Life Challenge

I will link this page up tomorrow. I came to bed for an early night so I am using my phone.

Tuesday again, so soon. I feel like I am leaving lots of slices at the minute with all the daily post challenges.

The days are beginning to blur, it has been a week since my last interview and I remember that jam packed day. In complete contrast today I only had 1 appointment and I forgot about it and had to reschedule! I never do that.

This morning was spent online with work emails & forms. I made a few calls and by evening I had an offer of work. Typically everything clashes. You wait forever and then it happens and you’re already booked. I am booked onto a poetry workshop as part of the literature festival in October and it means being offline for the 1st writing retreat day. There is another stage, an informal interview so they may choose to give the work to somebody else. On the flipside it is a 21 day contract and would pay my monthly outgoings and both mortgages.

What will be will be.

Today I also received the last of 3 Amazon parcels. Enough reading for this month. I am in bed with the first book that came. I need to read them in order… and no, it’s not a trilogy!

They are writing books. I will share this sprinkle of gold-dust with you all… A literary nightcap!

Finish your writing projects and don’t even think about judging them until they are redrafted and polished. Don’t compare your work to the greats. As others have said- ‘look in the mirror, that’s your competition.’

I think teachers say it best. We say it all the time. And it is so basic, even our four year olds understand.

 Always do your best. Try to do your best everytime.

If you’re struggling remember encouragement and praise you received when you tried your hardest. Now you are an adult, accept the wisdom of always trying YOUR best.

Do your best. Always do your best.

 

Blogtember Day 6 – Turning Point

Tuesday, September 10: Describe a distinct moment when your life took a turn.

I graduated university where I trained in Performing Arts, I dreamt of becoming an actress. I worked as a Performance Poet and started writing for small shows. I was in theatre productions, earning equity rather than working from it. Life was tough. I rented a house, I could barely afford the weekly food bill. I took up a full time retail position with a photography firm (vaguely arty) and earned less than I had at 16. I was unhappy.

 

The thick skin required for a life in the Arts was something I had not grown very well (see my ENFJ type -post from yesterday… sensitive) https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/blogtember-9th-september-day-5-johnny-depp-is-my-type/

also I was good, dang good, at home I was one of the best so had no need for the thick skin. Directors loved me, people wanted to cast me, it was all good. Here in the big city I was a tiny, eeny, weeny fish and their were plenty of actors with equal talent and all seemed ready and willing to stab me in the back. I retreated from the spot light and sourced solice in my notepad. It was at this point I decided to be a writer. I was 21, I had been published as a poet throughout my teens in small press, magazines and print anthologies.

This dream was a sudden one.

 

I was fully passionate and enthused and signed up for creative writing classes at the local Adult college. It was a great course! Divided into modules covering different genres and with facilitators who are actual practioneers in their field. Writers, radio broadcaster, journalists etc. invaluable. It stood me in great stead. Every ‘tutor’ encouraged me in their genre and recognised my talent, for my ego and my mind this recognition equalled the reality that I could write anything for anybody.

 

Shortly after this (months) I was still struggling with the artists life (a penniless one) such a long gap between publishing and royalities. I was working as a penniless freelance writer when I came to the same bridge (crossroads) as JK Rowling! Her Harry Potter manuscript was her final attempt at making it as a writer, her next plan was to train to teach … we were both in need of the same thing, money. Just enough for a roof, look at us now – she went right, I went left. Not that my ideas or writing was anywhere near Harry Potter, but…

 

Still we both got what we wanted, and decades later I REALLY have it, beautiful house, wonderful partner, regular salary, lifetime job…

 

I am at the crossroads again – this time I am turning RIGHT, listening to my creative spirit and stepping into the writers shoes. It isn’t always that you get the chance to revisit a turning point. I tried the one road. I did it for a long time. I can still use the skills and make some income from it. But happiness… that is found down the road to my right, whether I make it to the final destination or not.

Daily Post – Six Words, One Dream

Daily Prompt: Six of One, Half a Dozen of the Other

Write a six-word story about what you think the future holds for you, and then expand on it in a post.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/09/10/daily-prompt-six/

 

 

Great success, motherhood, riches and serenity.

 

I have dreams, we all have dreams, I am pulling mine into focus, jumping right into them and steering them towards ‘reality’. What I mean is that dull reminder that I am a creative being that I have ignored for over a decade is becoming a beating drum, loud. My own heartbeat perhaps. I have been somewhere that reminded me – life is too short.

 

We are put here on the Earth to be who we can be, potentially. You have to listen to those guiding voices at sometime. (I hope I don’t sound too crazy) I mean that nagging inside when you know you should be someplace else, doing something else.

GREAT SUCCESS refers to just that. Me following my inner voice, being guided by my creative spirit to spread my wings and fly, no… soar towards my greatest dreams and make them a living reality.

Which I will and in doing so I will be successful. A success. And if my dreams come to fruition in the way I have dreamt them, a GREAT success.

 

MOTHERHOOD, couldn’t be plainer, do I really need to expand? It is a place I have always thought of. Something I have always wanted. Cannot imagine leaving the planet without a little part of me existing inside someone else. We have talked about it for years, now we live under the same roof… it is in my future.

 

RICHES – Now in my wildest vision of my future this does literally mean money. But I needn’t dream millionaire, I just want enough. A comfortable sum. If my great success pays off, there will be plenty. I also mean riches as in a life that I dreamt being a life I now lead.

Riches of family, treasures that are not things and treasure that is things but priceless things. Each other. A unit. A new life.

 

SERENITY – is the feeling I hope to achieve at the end of all of this, if I gain all I imagine I want I will feel total, whole. Complete. At ease, at peace, serene.

A good place to be ready to dream more…

 

Who Pressed Fastforward?!

Today is zooming away! I am already trying to grasp some of back. I did have a list of chores in my head that have already diminished due to time restraints.

I have spent the morning doing business. It has taken hours but without it I cannot guarantee an income, so it was a matter of life, truly.

I still haven’t managed to start any writing today. I have checked the Telesummit I joined yesterday and have had hours of interview playing in the background whilst I waded through business emails and applications. I have come to the conclusion that creative careers means something different in my head. Interesting voices and information and I might be able to use it as a resource, but it isn’t what I needed, not what I was looking for.

My quest continues.