Dear Diary,
I’m still here…promise. Sorry the blogs haven’t been flowing as fast as in previous times but boy, I’ve been busy. You see, I grabbed at my own inspiration from my ‘Opportunity’ blog and I recognised the gifts and signs that life was putting in my path.
I guess the story begins with a win on a lottery ticket – no, nothing like that! I just won a free lucky dip ticket. So? What’s so great about that? Well, the lucky dip ticket that I won, only came up didn’t it?! No, no, calm down will ya….it was just three numbers, £30. I’m not jetting off in my private plane to the Caribbean just yet.
But…I was flipping through Facebook the next day when an advert caught my eye. Online training courses, ridiculously heavily slashed in price in a January sale (unashamedly cashing in on everyone being at home/furloughed throughout January!)….I chuckled ‘fair play to the Marketing Department’ and then scrolled on by, as you do. But wouldn’t you know it, the damned advert popped back up again just a few scrolls later. When it popped up on me for a third time, I took the hint. Ok, ok…I’ll click on it.
I actually found a few courses that captured my interest. However, one screamed at me the loudest, in fact I’d go as far as to say it was jumping off the screen and slapping me in the face. “The Ultimate Writing Course”. An online certification comprising of five different courses, covering five very different genres. Ta-da!! Yes! That’s the kiddie for me, thought I.
I investigated a bit more, feeling the excitement beginning to bubble away in my stomach. ‘The trouble is’, said the sensible killjoy voice that resides inside my head, ‘it’s January, things are always tight after Christmas and this year more-so than any, can you really justify spending out on a writing course just now?’
Ta-da! Poof, from the other side of my head, my £30 lottery win started gently whispering my name. My previous Blog about recognising opportunity flashed in bright lights around my head. If that little surprise win wasn’t a sign that I should be doing this, then I don’t know what would be. Fate or my angels, whatever it is…had delivered me some cash and was now screaming at me as to what I was supposed to spend it on. I listened. I signed up. I paid my money and downloaded my course. Feeling positive and almost a teensy bit smug if I’m honest, I then received a message from my Sister-in-Law simply containing a link to Marian Keyes Twitter page, followed by the words ‘This might be good?’ ‘Sure’, thought I…(who’s Marian Keyes?)…’I’ll give it a look’. I clicked the link and staring back at me the poster read “So you want to Write a Novel? Marian’s four-week course on the basics of plot, characterisation, dialogue etc…IT’S FREE”.
Well hell yeah I do! This looked great! Didn’t it? I could almost feel the gentle shoves from behind me of whatever greater force it is, nudging me along in the direction I need to be travelling. Except..wait, who is Marian Keyes again?
Well it turns out, Marian Keyes is an Irish author who writes women’s literature about some pretty hard hitting subjects but with a comedic twist that wins her great recognition amongst women and particularly, the ‘chick lit’ audience. My Sister-in-Law, who is an avid reader, acclaimed her as ‘brilliant, mad as a box of frogs and excellent author’. That was enough for me. Sold. I trust my SIL implicitly and I was liking the sound of this Marian lady. So, remembering my own words about recognising opportunities, I signed up.
And I’ve got to say, I’m so incredibly glad I did. What a lady. She talked to us (her captivated audience), live, for an hour which absolutely flew by. I think it took me approximately 30 seconds to fall in love with the woman. Fabulous lady, who ‘presented’ so beautifully with such an ease of devotion. “Forget all the rules and the constraints” she ignited the raw passion in her audience and that’s something I admire. Take down all the brick walls, untie the chains and just write. And write for YOURSELF, not for what you ‘think’ an audience might or might not want to read, in fact write as though it will never be read.
Be free!
Inspiring advice.
I love the tearing down of the walls of expectation and using freedom to find results through exploration. I’ve found myself thriving on this approach a few times in my life actually. I remember back to the young ‘artist’ that I surprisingly found deep down within myself when I was in my early teens. Back then, I learnt that sure, we can all appreciate that the greats, like Turner and Constable, were geniuses that could paint detailed and intricately perfect observations. But also, thank goodness the likes of Picasso and Hockney chose to be free from those constraints, without care of what an audience might have thought, otherwise the world would never have experienced the incredible talent that they too had to offer and the doors that they opened for others. And don’t even get me started on Salvador Dali!
Be brave!
I think writing is of similar ilk. Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying my online ‘Ultimate Writing Course’ and the learning is invaluable. There most certainly is technical skill involved, of course there is, but it’s very easy to get caught up with and tangled in the barbed wire of the ‘rules’.
After completely inspiring me, Marian set us our homework for the week. Every day, she posts a random sentence on her social media pages, and we (her aspiring audience) are to write 500 words which somewhere includes that random sentence. The rules are; there are no rules…just have fun.
Turns out, that’s so liberating that it’s actually a bit scary. Eek…What should I write about?
It doesn’t matter, just write!
So, I’ve written a few 500 (ish) word ‘shorts’ so far this week. Some have flowed easily and others have had me stumped. I’ve got a lot to learn and a long road ahead, but it’s a road I’m so excited to have put myself on.
Do you want to take a peek?
*
“She sat at her desk, the rain pelting against the window mirrored the pounding in her head. The chitter-chatter of the telephones being answered and the gentle tapping of keyboards around her faded into the background as her thoughts revisited last night. How could she have been so clumsy?
Everything had been going so well. She’d been elated when she got the job two months ago. A chance to work for the incredible John Tilsbury. Having always been a fashionista, she’d admired his brand since her late teens – all her friends had – everyone she knew had! Chic, powerful trends aimed at females who weren’t afraid to show the world that they’d arrived and were not to be messed with! John Tilsbury had harnessed that like no other designer in her time. And now here she was, a junior in the fashion design team, a dream come true….and she had to blow it!
She wiggled the mouse and checked her emails…nothing yet. She’d seen her boss arrive and knew it was only a matter of time before she was called into the office. Her strong, black coffee, although providing a comforting warmth to her hands as she clasped it, was doing very little to relieve her hangover. She glanced at the artisan doughnuts she’d picked up on her way in that morning, sitting there in all their glorious, expensive, deliciousness. Her stomach churned as a wave of nausea flooded over her, urgh, why did she have to drink so much last night? Her first ‘launch’ party. She’d told herself – her friends had told her – ‘DO NOT get drunk’, ‘John will be there, this is your chance to impress’.
John had been there alright, in all his gratifying gorgeousness. His strong, tanned frame and chiselled jawline with its sexy 5 o’clock shadow had certainly not gone unnoticed by her colleagues. How she now wished that she’d gone unnoticed.
She felt herself flush at the thought of him and the delicious scent of his aftershave that hung in the air as she’d moved toward him for the ‘promo’ photograph and then her cheeks redden deeper as the incident that had followed taunted her.
The shrill of her desk-phone snapped her back from her thoughts. Her boss. Now was the time to face the consequences of last night. Slightly flustered, she jumped up and with a deep breath, headed over to the office as instructed, clutching the doughnuts whilst flashbacks continued to tease her.
Stumbling and landing on John in that unfortunate way had been entirely accidental. Her drunken slurs of apology had been muffled by the wails of her boss on the floor next to them, the red wine furiously running down from her now dishevelled hair onto the brand new, exclusively designed, cream silk suit, showcasing John’s new collection.
She now sheepishly entered her boss’s office, placing the peace offering on the desk in front of her, one look at Mrs Tilsbury’s merciless, stony face told her immediately that the doughnuts had failed to de-escalate the situation. This was going to be bad.
*
So that’s how my spare time is being spent at the moment, I’m still here and busily typing away behind the scenes. I’m incredibly thankful to whatever guidance it is that is steering me – What is that? Myself? Fate? God? Guardian Angels? The Universe? Or just pure coincidence? I haven’t worked it out yet but something is lighting my path and I am finally listening.
And it feels great!
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