Tag: writing

In the midst of sadness and despair

Another of these…

You know I like a good prompt and these are M’s for February. Why not give them a whirl.

Your sweet whisper the zephyr in my sails,

Still waters stretched before me.

And golden sunset calls me on

And horizons set me free

.

Clouds circle dark, waves stirred to life

And day turns into night

Cold watery claws scratch at my sides

And sanity takes flight

.

I dash myself against your rocks

Stare into your abyss

Drifting with the flotsam lost

Still hunger for your kiss

.

And golden daylight comes again

I swim towards your shore

though sirens call me to their arms

to lead me home once more

The edge of forever

Breathless I stare into the void

You know I like a good prompt and these are M’s for February. Why not give them a whirl.

A lifetime you gave me, willingly,

and I drank and devoured every drop.

My belly full I sense alas my race is run.

I gorged and feared the settings sun

And begged her please to stop

.

.

She shook her head and took my hand

And led me to nightfall’s brink.

A price to pay for banquet sweet,

Dark nothing swirled about my feet

And slowly into darkness did I sink.

.

.

Into light I melt, to be no more

All I am returned once more

A life lived well, and as I fade

Pure joy I feel for life I made

I smile and am no more

.

Circle in the sky

Long I laboured beneath your golden gaze…

You know I like a good prompt and these are M’s for February.  Why not give them a whirl.

 

Long I laboured beneath your golden gaze.

Day upon day and into so many years now long forgot

In every one I sensed you there

you whispered that you’d leave me not.

 

Time races headlong to this final sunset

warm embrace upon my pallid skin

through misty eyes I recall your face

and feel your warmth burn deep within.

 

Though darkness calls beyond the stars

to nothing will I fade

This life, this love, this evermore

of memories are made.

 

 

Balls to you October

See ya later!

 As Blogging months go I really didn’t enjoy October one bit.  It was filled with excuses and distractions and I found very little joy in the whole experience and got myself into a bit of a hole with it all.

I’ve been doing this since last July and I was certainly at my least inspired and uncreative but I wont go as far as to call it writer’s block because there would be the presumption that I am a writer and that is something I just cant really come to terms with.  It was more a matter of not being able to quite find the time to do it properly.

I started a new job a short while ago so am actually having to work for my money which is a real pain in the arse I tell you and at night I was finding myself far too weary when I eventually sat in front of the keyboard so mostly I just went to sleep instead or sulked a bit. 

Now the urges and ideas were still there that wasn’t the problem.  My head is always full of dirty limericks and images of stick people finger banging each other and I am never short of an idea for a bit of a story but time just seemed to conspire against me.  Or at least I let it.

Interestingly my diet also suffered during the month which I wrote about here and I think maybe that was part of the problem.  My discipline in general had gone to pot and across the board I was finding myself unproductive and rather jaded and allowing myself to find excuses wherever they presented themselves.

Anyway, as November loomed I decided bollocks to the excuses and given that I was off today planted my arse in front of the laptop for the day and forced myself to get back on the horse I have so enjoyed riding this last year.  I forced myself to write whatever old bollocks I could muster and you know what, I have enjoyed it immensely.  It’s hardly great stuff but it’s my stuff and I cracked a smile when I did it and I felt rather relaxed by it all which is great because It has caused me some stress at times  which is just ridiculous.

Ive managed maybe ten pieces today which is great but mostly I have enjoyed feeling creative again.  Yes I didn’t feed the kids and absolutely I should have made them do something productive instead of leaving them to do whatever it is they got up to all day, but it was more important for me to do what I needed to do because I far less grumpy and dickish when I am being creative.  I never received any notifications that I had been charged for anything so I think I got away lightly.

I think November will be better.   

24

24 posts in 24 hours. I know I know – I have no idea why either…

I do apologise terribly for filling your reader the last 24 hours.  I simply decided to do 24 posts in 24 hours because Ive never done it before.  Ive been struggling to write of late and feeling weary and just rather lethargic so I thought maybe a challenge might be good for me.  I wanted to do more but I was quite busy so didnt get to do some of the stuff I planned but such is life.  Well I think it was 24.  I think maybe I missed one but the intention was there.

🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday to My Blog – The after party – clean up

My thoughts on keeping up momentum with your blog.

You might wonder why the dickens I am posting so much today, and if so all will become clear eventually.  For now though I will continue and post a little more about my experience of blogging this last year.  I wrote a bit here, and another bit here already.

In the last year I have posted almost everyday.  I did a count and in total I think I missed 30 days which isn’t bad.  That is not to say I haven’t written a lot – I have written about 1100 pieces – it’s just that I actually just like to get them posted once I have written them instead of scheduling them in some organised schedule.  I will schedule perhaps to the next day if I have a lot to post but I found that scheduling posts for say the next week took some of my focus away and made me a little complacent.

Now I don’t write for any reason other than to write and to hopefully leave something my kids will read one day and perhaps their children too.  I don’t dream of publishing a novel or changing lives or anything so noble.  I write because I love doing it and I should have been doing it for the last 30 years.

I realise this can be somewhat boom or bust at times and this week is a great example.  I have been pretty busy at work and at home and low on energy as I get used to my new diet and this ungodly warm weather so I managed maybe a post or two a day at best.  I made notes in my notebook and scribbled down ideas but that was the extent of my creativity.  By the time Friday came around I felt this surge of creativity and energy and so decided that I would do a post an hour for the next 24 hours.  Monday might be lean when it eventually comes around but for me writing is all about writing in the moment and following the urges I feel.

Now I should say that I would also advocate writing every day even if it is something small.  Keep the brain going and maintain a degree of routine and you wont find yourself slipping too far behind.  I have occasionally taken some time away and to be honest it was a bad idea.  I found it really difficult to get back to my writing as other things took up the time I put aside and I am unlikely to do anything like that again.

If you can’t be arsed with all that here are a few bullet points for you on my experience that you might find useful:

  • Keep a notebook to hand you never know when inspiration will strike.  Or text yourself.  Or write it on your hand.  I know Ive forgotten some great ideas.
  • Write something every day and you wont drift too far from your blog
  • When inspiration strikes follow the urge.  If that means ten posts in a day then sod it – do it.
  • Make time to write and ask those around you to help you stick to the schedule because creativity matters

Michael

x

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday to My Blog – The after party

My thoughts on keeping up momentum with your blog.

I wrote here a couple of weeks ago about the one year anniversary and threatened to impart a few thoughts on my year of blogging, so here you go.

My thoughts on keeping up momentum.

A lot of people seem to start out with much gusto and quite quickly falter when they realise that you wont actually get many readers at all when you first press submit.  Hitting the first year was important for me as I read that 90% of bloggers throw the towel in before they reach that point and I was determined to not be one of those.  Apparently 80% of people who hit the first year don’t make it through the second so yes, the chances of success are slim, but then again what do you regard as success?

Whether you write for pleasure or for profit I think it goes without saying, though I am going to say it, that you have to have a degree of tenacity.  You need to love what you are doing and if you do and work on your craft and engage with others then over time you will build up a following.   Perhaps that is the best you can hope for?  You can only control yourself and not others so as brilliant as you may be and as fabulous as your writing is you might just struggle at first.  I think some of my first posts had four or five views at best – and even now when I have 650 or so followers I might still only get 40 or 50 views for a piece if I’m lucky – so you have to be patient and work for the reward.

For me I have always avoided the idea of a follow for a follow.  I will check out most people who follow me in the hope that their work or they themselves are interesting – and if they are I follow – otherwise I move on.  It is not at all personal – I just like my reader feed to be full of things that I can engage in. I know of bloggers who work damned hard at flitting around from blogger to blogger liking and commenting (often with the same comments) to try and get them to follow them in return.  From what I can tell this does not necessarily create an engaged and interested following.  You reap what you sow and I think that type of insincere approach gets the same in return.  You can tell because the blogger will have a complete lack of engagement with their work despite a number of likes.  Comments aren’t everything, and people can comment without reading, but when a piece has 40 likes and no comments at all on a subject that cannot go without comment that makes me wonder.

I might be wrong but I don’t think I am.

So where was I heading with this?  Not absolutely certain but here’s a few bullet points on my thinking if you can’t be arsed to read all of the rest of my thoughts up there:

  • Write regulary.  If I follow you I want to read your stuff.  It will make you a better writer too.
  • Engage and be engaging – people can be more interesting than their work
  • Consider the length of your post.  I’m surprised you got this far.  People have a short attention span.
  • Don’t be afraid to repost earlier posts.  They are probably fab and worth another look.
  • Take joy in what you do.  It shows and it is infectious.
  • Don’t take it personally if no one likes your stuff.  It might be shit, it might be that people don’t get you.  Who cares – you’re creating stuff and that’s awesome
  • Share someone else’s work now and then.  I should do it more and will.  You should too.
  • When you think you can do it anymore or don’t want to then that is precisely when you sit your backside down and do something,  There isn’t enough creativity in the world.

I think that will do for now.  Until next time.

Michael

x

 

 

Photo courtesy of pixabay

 

 

Happy Birthday to My Blog

What a difference a year makes eh!

Just the one post today I think while I reflect on exactly one year of blogging!
It’s all a bit of a blur to be honest and mostly I thought I would just say thanks to all of you kind souls out there who have taken time to read me, comment, and provide me with such wonderful encouragement. I had no idea that I would enjoy writing as much as I have and I think it is now something I will likely have to keep doing given the pleasure I get from it.
I do want to start thanking people individually but I worry that I will forget somebody which I would not want to do. There are those who read and like and comment every day and whom I feel I now know so well and then there are those who like away merrily day after day and I do not know you at all but I remain grateful for you all taking the time to pop in.
I have taken such enjoyment from so many of your blogs too, and if I ‘like’ it then I have read it. I wish I had time to read more really.
I will write more about my year blogging later this week but for today this will be just about it I reckon, I have quite a lot on.
Thanks always
Michael x

Haiku perhaps?

Let’s continue the summer theme shall we. There are some sights out there to be seen for sure.

Soaring temperatures

drunk shirtless methodone tramps

all the girls bits out

Today I did actually see what appeared to be a shirtless methadone tramp.  I think he had maybe lost his shirt though or left it in a dumpster because it didn’t seem to be about his person.  Curiously he also had one trouser leg rolled up to the knee whilst he wore the other in the more traditional fashion.

How do I know he was on something?  Well I don’t and I might be super judgy but I think walking down the middle of the road whispering to himself whilst staring wildly at passers by was a bit of a give away.

Still, I’m sure it was lovely to feel the sun on his back as he seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the fine weather we are having.

On the matter of flesh well, you just head down to the market here and you’ll see what I am on about.  Whilst I am all for body positivity whatever your shape or size that doesn’t mean I support adults wearing childrens clothes to go and eat sausage rolls on a bench outside of the bookies.

😉

 

1000 Posts

Well I never…1000 posts.

Well I never, this is post number 1000, and I’m not really sure where to start really.

I don’t think I will linger on why I started, I think I wrote about that somewhen once here if you’re interested, and it seems like 5 minutes since I wrote my 100th post so to get to a thousand is pretty fab.

As a writing journey it has been so much more rewarding and so much more fun than I could ever have imagined. Some days I find myself bursting with limericks an others its flash fiction but barely a day goes by that I don’t have something I want to put down on paper.

Fitting it all into a busy work and family life is never easy, and some days it takes a real effort and a lack of sleep to get written what I want to share. Last month I penned a 35000 word story to M’s fabulous prompts yet so far this month time seems to have escaped me a little and all I have managed is a barrage of limericks and haiku. There have also been loads of poems, posts about my life, pictures of where I live and a few on dieting even. Whatever it is I have loved writing every one and they all thrill me equally.

The biggest surprise for me throughout though has been the people. You lot. I think I wrote about it here but I cannot stress enough how important I have found the support of anyone and everyone who for whatever reason has chosen to follow or read me. I cant name you all but you know who you are. Thank you. Throw in all the wonderful people I have been able to follow (and I wish I had time to read and follow more than I do) and it all adds up to a most pleasant surprise indeed.

So what next then I ask myself? I am.not the most introspective of types so mostly I will just keep muddling on.

Well I am going to do a couple of books this year I think. One on Limericks of course (given that I have written over 350 of them), and I intend to turn the In-Between thingy into a novella and who knows what else. This certainly feels very much like the beginning only so thanks for sticking with me so far I hope you enjoy what is to come.

Michael x

Toilet Paper Troubles

Read this before I am forced to delete it…

M has another month of fab prompts that you can see here

Today it is Toilet paper troubles.

 

I saw the prompt and my mind instantly went back to an event a few years ago now that you might like.  You also might not but it’s a true story either way.

It was a lovely summers day and I remember being sat in the living room, as we English are prone to do when we have good weather, when my eldest could be heard laughing hysterically at the top of the stairs.  I’m talking out of control belly laugh.  He was about 7 at the time, and Tom my youngest about 4.

“What’s so funny Sam” I shout up the stairs and he can’t answer, simply pointing down the stairs and out into the garden.  I looked and was at first uncertain until I noticed Tom wandering around the garden with his trousers around his ankles trailing a good ten feet of soiled toilet paper behind him hanging from his bottom.

Obviously my first instinct was to grab my camera to get a good video and as Sam continued to howl hysterically I headed down the garden to capture the moment for posterity.

At this point my wife was alerted to something going on and I heard a cry of distress from the upstairs window an the thundering of feet down the stairs as sh and Sam hurried down the back steps and into the garden too.

“What the bloody hell is going on” she shouted *or something like that) “and why the hell are you filming it and not cleaning up.  Curiously that wasn’t a question that had crossed my mind.  Perhaps that just shows how different men and women are.

Before I know it a hasty investigation reveals that Sam had tossed Tom a loo roll when he said he needed to go (we only had one loo  in the house at the time which Sam was using) and told him to go in the garden.  Which Tom did.

“Get some carrier bags” she says to me “and put that bloody camera away.”

The look on her face suggested that she was not to be trifled with so I hurried into the house returning with bags to use to clean up the mess.  By this point Tom had pointed out where he had relieved himself and the wife took one of the bags to pick up his leavings. 

Probably should point out at this point that I have a quite terrible gag reflex and am prone to heaving and lurching at the sight of bodily fluids which would explain why I begin to gag, eyes watering, as she attempts to pick up the remains of Tom’s lunch. 

“Just help will you and pick up that toilet roll” she says pointing to the yards of soiled twin ply littering the garden.  I respond by gagging uncontrollably as I near it, which in turns sets off Sam who himself starts to gag.

“What is wrong with you people” she shouts as we both stand there gagging as she ties the bag full of Toms number two but this sight is simply too much for Sam who suddenly starts to projectile vomit across the garden.

“Oh god no “ she shouts panicked clutching a bag of the youngest’s poo as I crack up unable to do anything other that alternate between laughing and gagging, “Just help will you, god what are the neighbours going to think.”

At this point we were about to find out not what the neighbours thought but certainly what their dog thought as she trotted along and quite merrily began to eat Sam’s vomit.

It is all very much a blur from that point on but I know there was screaming and shouting and the dog looked most satisfied with whatever Sam had had for lunch and I eventually stopped gagging though it was too late to recover the position.

It wasn’t long after that we started planning to have the second bathroom put in.

 

 

 

A Sprinkle of Balderdash

M has another month of fab prompts that you can see here

Today it is A sprinkle of Balderdash.

For those of you who might have seen my blog in the last month you will have seen that I wrote a 30000 word story, day by day using M’s prompts. Given that my preferred medium of expression is the glorious 5 lines of a limerick, and the longest post I have ever done was about 500 words, I am not sure where the confidence came from but there you go.

Mostly it started out as waffle and balderdash but as the month went on I really rather enjoyed it and whilst it is not quite the 50000 words NANOWRIMO might ask of you it’s a start, so I thought I would share a few thoughts on the experience.

  • It was so important to make sure I wrote every day. I got behind after a weekend of enjoying the royal wedding and it was so hard to catch up so should I do it again I would ensure that time is put aside at all costs.
  • I discovered afterwards that there are two types of writers. Those that plan and the ‘pantsers’. ‘Pantsers’ are apparently people who make fly by the seat of their pants and plan very little. I think I lean more towards being a ‘pantser’.
  • Encouragement really matters. Those wonderful people amongst you who took time to read and comment, M for just doing the prompts, Dronsta who really helped with advice or people on Twitter who posted things on their own timelines which I found encouraging – it all really motivated me when I was struggling.
  • Editing can come later, this was pretty much a public first draft but getting the draft down became such a motivator. I can now revisit and do whatever I want with it but it is mine to play with at my leisure.
  • I had only ever written short flash fiction pieces before and the idea of writing 1000 words was massive daunting for me but day by day, line by line, I found that the stamina built pretty quickly and by the end I could churn out an unedited 2500 words in about an hour and a half.
  • When I completed it I wished I was a dog because It was such a thrill that I would happily have licked my own bollocks, and not just for hygiene reasons I tell you.
  • For a few days afterwards I have found it really hard to write. Oddly I found myself going through quite a few emotions having put so much into something over a short period. At times I felt stupid for doing it, others proud, and I really missed it which made doing anything else feel pointless. I did a bit of reading and this is apparently normal it seems.

So, if you’re wondering whether you can do it, absolutely you can just put some time aside, find people to support you and write, write, write…

Up yours Alanis Morisette

In 1995 Alanis Morisette went on and on about things that aren’t ironic being very much so. 

In 1995 Alanis Morisette went on and on about things that aren’t ironic being very much so.  All that nonsense about rain on your wedding day and a free ride when you’ve already paid.  That’s not ironic, it’s just poor weather – something she could quite well have foreseen by checking a weather forecast and bad timing.  I actually don’t think the woman has a clue what irony actually is.

I will tell you what irony is though shall I.  Irony is when you write a post about backing up and then install a WordPress widget as part of the process and that widget causes a major issue with your WordPress site which in due course necessitates the use of that back up to fix the issues the back up process caused.

It even caused my blog to lose the ability to have people follow it which the WordPress folk explained was should have been expected when installing a widget or downloading a non WordPress theme on my plan and they also very kindly acknowledged that yes, they probably ought to point this out.  Good of them I thought.

5 days later, a reset of my site to the 9th of April and an ongoing hassle with trying to get things back to normal and hopefully I will soon be able to get back to some writing again.  Lessons learned I guess…Not really sure what they are yet though maybe Alanis has a song about it.

What do you see?

A moment of your time please…

I seem to be having a few problems with WordPress at the moment. Just yesterday I was told that I no longer had a follow button on my website because I had chosen to add a widget. What sort of world is it where you would have a Blog but not have the option for somebody to follow it? Honest. Today though I’m just wondering whether you would mind leaving me a comment if you read this post as to what you saw when you were trying to get to it. Is it like everybody elses blog where you see a link in the reader and you click on it and you’re taken to the piece that I have written? Or, more annoyingly, do you see a link similar to the one in the header and below which asks you to follow a link to view the post.

A seemingly unnecessary second click to get to the peace that I have written. If you wouldn’t mind just letting me know what you saw and maybe whether you were in the reader or finding my post another way say perhaps through an email . It would be most appreciated because the WordPress happiness engineers seem to be really struggling to help me with this.

Footprints – #writephoto

A revisiting of sorts

In response to Sue’s photo prompt.

“Hey Boss, have you seen what Mary’s been writing?”

“That footprints in the sand woman?”

“Yeah her”.  Jonah scratched his head and laughed.  “Did you have anything to do with it?  I know what you’re like, whispering in their ears like you care”

“Look, I never asked to get stuck on this planet ok, I never asked to be immortal and I certainly never asked to be anyone’s lord and saviour. He continued, quite vexed, “2500 years I’ve been here. I get bored.  Not once have those upstairs even bothered to so much as pop in and say ‘Good Job’ or  read one of my reports, I’m sorry”

“What did you do?”

“Ok so I popped into her dream and I gave it all that ‘I was carrying you ‘ business.  I also gave her cancer.”

“Boss, you’re such a dick.”

Back it up baby

such a relief…

I’m not writing at the moment.  I am instead doing something I should have done long ago and in fact this should have been part of my ritual from day 1 of writing this blog.  As a programmer by trade I should know better yet each night I go to bed and still almost every word I have written in 9 months of blogging remains without back up.

I have written more than 800 posts in that time, tens and tens of thousands of words, hundreds of ideas poured onto the page yet I do so with little regard for protecting it from chance or stupidity.  The thought of losing it all now is just bowel churningly awful as I intend to put a load of into into a number of books this year.

When I started my blog I did not really think much beyond signing up to wordpress and then beginning to type.  To this day that is mostly what I do with very little plan or real agenda.

I realise that you can export your entire Blog using WordPress functionality, and this I did though I will admit that I think there may well be an issue with the file as I am encountering all manner of issues trying to export it from XML.  Instead of buggering around with the file I instead chose to open every single post I have made and copy it to an appropriate word document (one for poems, another for flash fiction etc) and then save that both locally and to the cloud.

I realise there are better more efficient ways of doing this but if 15 years of programming have taught me anything, it is that if you don’t back up regularly you will get your arse spanked on this matter before too long.  It will still take me a couple of days to complete but already I feel far happier knowing that I am not leaving such things to chance and I will most certainly be far more disciplined in such matters going forward.

I’m sure you all back everything up though right.  Probably just me.

A Few Days Off

Those of you who have followed me for any length of time will know I love to post.  Since I discovered blogging I have enjoyed almost every minute and am happy posting as many times a day as inspiration takes me.

For the last few days though I have taken some time away and just let a few scheduled pieces trickle through.  I’m still as inspired as I was but I just felt frightfully tired and was busier than normal at work and therefore decided to concentrate on simply sleeping more.   I have never been one for a lot of sleep but this week I have craved it terribly and am thoroughly enjoying the idea of an early night.  Instead of the 5 or 6 I usually get by on I have been aiming to get more in the region of 7 to 8 and I feel a lot better for it.

I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things with my writing but right now I am just going to keep writing down ideas and scribbling in my notebook and I will return to writing in a couple of days.

Right now though it’s time for bed 🙂

 

A twinge of fate – March Prompts 25/31

A brief meander

M’s writing prompts for March came with the following instructions:

“…set your timer for ten minutes and begin writing about one of the prompts listed below. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, neatness, or anything like that; just write!”

Let us see what whimsical nonsense I can whip up in ten minutes…

You can see the prompts here.

I’m not a believer in predestination, but I know people are, and that’s great.  In fact, I am not a believer in much other than what I can see or what can be proven.

I used to believe in all sorts of stuff, but no more.  I gave that lark up a few years ago and whilst I’m still working on parts of what I believe I find that mostly, beyond that which can be proven, I think we’re a huge stroke of luck and in this mind mindbogglingly large universe we are very much a ripple in a vast ocean of  chance.

Now I know I should probably have a better answer than that but you know what, I don’t.  A friend of mine insists we are here for a good time not a long time and I like that.  I am not talking pure hedonistic pleasures, simply the pursuit of that which makes you happy.

I reckon that when we’re dead we are simply no more and whatever energy courses through us is released when we are disposed of in which ever way we might choose.

I know it is simple and that lots of people have compelling arguments to the contrary but I don’t really care because I have found a peace that I never had at any other point in my life and I’m rather happy with that.

 

 

 

Dribbles of delight – March Prompts 24/31

Not at all about ejaculation. Honest.

M’s writing prompts for March came with the following instructions:

“…set your timer for ten minutes and begin writing about one of the prompts listed below. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, neatness, or anything like that; just write!”

Let us see what whimsical nonsense I can whip up in ten minutes…

You can see the prompts here.

 

There are times when a prompt will pop up ad I simply think to myself “No Michael, you know how this is going to turn out so just stop right there.”

I don’t have a particularly filthy mind, but I do like to say what I think.  I take a degree of pride in pushing boundaries, testing sensibilities and poking things that should not be poked.  I do however do my best to do so with a degree of humour and a modicum of taste.

I shall therefore leave this one be and just move along quietly because I do still have a certain amount of self control.

Just to be clear in case you were wondering though, it was going to be a toss up between a poem about a chap with an extreme case of premature ejaculation or a woman who discovers the joys of female ejaculation for the first time.

Problem was, for the latter at least, I would have needed to do some research and the wife and kids use my laptop quite regularly so I really did not fancy having to explain the content of my browser to either.

It’s a pity really because lush, rush and gush all rhyme quite wonderfully and you know I would have loved the opportunity to explain that “With shock and surprise, it flew into his eyes, and he screamed “help I think I’ve gone blind!”

But I won’t, because I am better than that…