Posts made in November, 2009
Writing Workshop: Red Shoes
Welcome back to the Wednesday Writing Workshop link-up! At the bottom of this post you’ll find the widget to post the link to your workshop posts. But first, I guess it’s my turn. Now I had been excitedly planning to do prompt #1 but we’ve had nothing but rain, rain, rain and everywhere looks so grim and miserable. So I’m going to save that one for another day, and instead I’ve picked prompt #3 and found a picture of some shoes that I think reflect my personality pretty well…
________________________________________
With thanks to Fete et Fleur for the image
The owner of these shoes is comfortable in her own skin, liking the feel of it and the way she seems to have grown into it, just as the soft leather of her shoes has moulded and knitted itself to the shapes and curves of her small, narrow feet.
The owner of these shoes burns as hot as they do, full of spark and passion and fire and drive. She feels connected to the blood that flows through her veins, blood of her ancestors and of the land beneath her feet.
The owner of these shoes is not afraid to wear them with stripy socks under flared, faded jeans, even though they may not match, or to team with long, slightly awkward legs and too-short skirts. They reflect the easy smile and bright eyes that eagerly meet your own, although may sometimes be hidden behind a frown and twist of her lips as she bites down nervously, or in concentration.
The owner of these shoes knows that there is no place like home, but knows too that home is found not in the too-small house or not-good enough neighbourhood, but in the way they tuck just perfectly under the leg of her beloved as she sits on their worn, leather sofa.
The owner of these shoes adamantly refuses to grow up or wear ‘grown up’ shoes. She cannot be trusted in heels, and may throw a wobbler if she is required to trade them in for a more appropriate alternative. She does not like dress codes, or ‘work wear’, or power dressing or fashion of any description.
The owner of these shoes is quite adept at getting them stuck in her mouth, tripping over her words as much as she does her own feet and somehow managing to never quite verbalise the words she would like to, although she can write as eloquently as you could wish to.
The owner of these shoes has a tendency to run and skip when she excited, enjoying the freedom of her muscles and the bounce of the ground under her feet.
The owner of these shoes has walked a hundred thousand miles, some admittedly slower than others, but always with a spring in her step and a sense of discovery. She is not afraid to let her feet do the walking and her head catch up a little way behind, or to take the road less travelled, venturing down forgotten paths and unexplored turnings.
The owner of these shoes does not take short cuts, preferring the scenery of the meandering path and knowing that she will always get there in end. They are used to being splashed through puddles, kicked through leaves, propped up on park benches as their owner sits with book on lap. They are not concerned with looking slightly worn or well-loved as their owner is both these things, having faded and been polished back to life over and over.
They will last a lifetime, just as she will.
________________________________________
So now it’s your turn! What prompt did you choose?
1. Pictures of home: Go for a walk near where you live, and take photos of the things that scream ‘home’ to you.
- Inspired by Kelly and her beautiful early evening walk.
2. Blog about a button you pressed that you weren’t supposed to.
-Inspired by Laura ‘Are we nearly there yet’ and her Phantom Beeper
3. Find a picture of a shoe that best sums up your personality.
-Inspired by the lovely Gabfran and her shoe-related blog, and Jo Beaufoix’s ‘Special’ Shoes
4. Tell me about something precious you gave away.
- Inspired by the very inspirational Muddling Along Mummy who has become a breastmilk donor.
5. Write about the best (or worst) piece of advice you have ever been given.
- Inspired by ME! and all the fantastic advice you gave me this week.
Leave your name and the URL to your post in the MckLinky below (the URL should be to your post not just to your blog) andleave me a comment to let me know you’ve taken part. If you have the time it would be great if you could try and read and comment on at least two other entries. And be kind! It’s supposed to be a bit of fun – we’re not looking for the next Booker Prize winner here!
If you haven’t had chance to respond yet, then you’ve still got today! Or just wait till next week, when there’ll be five brand new prompts to get you thinking.
This Writing Workshop is brought to you in association with Mama Kat’s Losin’ It – who’s lovely author came up with the concept and runs her own workshop over in the U.S.
Read MoreBreaking into Freelance Writing
For a while now I’ve been wondering whether there was a way I could start making some money from my writing talents attempts . Money is, quite frankly, in rather short supply and a little extra here and there would come in very handy. It was a very definite decision of ours that I would spend the first couple of years of Kai’s life at home with him while Ant went out to work, and one I am happy we made, but it is tough. Very tough.
Writing is what I love. It’s what I think about most of the time. It’s the thing that feels the most natural to me; the most right. When I am writing I finally feel like I’ve found my calling and my place in the world, that I have discovered my purpose. It’s exhilarating, addictive, and terrifying in that it seems to come with so much emotional investment. It’s only natural that I would want something I love so much to be able to earn me a living.
Increasingly I’m beginning to think that freelance journalism ISN’T for me: I don’t know whether I’ve got what it takes and fiction is my real dream, and where, I think, my particular skills lie, or, at least, I hope they will once I’ve practised a bit more.
But when lovely Linda from ‘You’ve Got You Hands Full’ contacted me telling me about a new column she was running on her blog offering freelance writing tips and asking if I had any questions to start the ball rolling, I immediately thought of about half a dozen. Because I know that there are lots of you that ARE keen to break in to freelance writing and that, like me, you find the whole field a little overwhelming and wouldn’t know where to start.
Linda has provided a wonderful advice-filled post in response to my (many) questions that offers a great insight into anyone thinking of trying to get some paid writing work. From Linda’s response it seems like the opportunities ARE out there, but only if you have the right skills to offer and know how to market yourself.
I’ll be honest, the more I learn about the freelance writing market, the smaller and more out of my depth I feel. I’m not sure I’m the kind of writer that would be good at networking, at selling yourself, at finding an angle. And that makes me wonder what kind of writer I am, or if, in fact, I am any kind of writer at all.
But these are my issues, not yours, and you may feel braver and more confident about making your forays into the field.
I’d really recommend you give Linda’s post a read and check out the advice she offers – as someone with a lot of experience in the field she is definitely a voice worth listening to.
Read MoreWriting Prompts #6 – Picture Prompts and Precious Gifts
Morning all! It’s that time of the week again!
For all your newbies (and it’s never to late to join in), here’s how it works… I’m going to give you 5 writing/blogging prompts. Pick one, pick two, or do them all if you’re really keen – it’s up to you. How you respond is your choice. You could share a real-life story, or make one up. You could write a poem or just free-write without thinking too hard and see what happens. It can be funny; it can be serious; it can be emotional. It can be whatever you want it to be. The only rule is to have fun with it!
Prompts each week will take their inspiration from blogs, current affairs, daily life, or just whatever everyone happened to be talking about that week. If you’d like to suggest a prompt then send me an email or catch me on Twitter – I would love to hear your ideas.
So here they are. There’s a couple of photo inspired posts this week too, just for something a little different…
1. Pictures of home: Something slightly different for your first prompt this week. I want you to go for a walk near where you live, take photos of the things that scream ‘home’ to you. Come back, post them with a commentary and tell me why this place is so special to you. If the outdoors doesn’t inspire you, do the same thing with objects around your house.
- Inspired by Kelly and her beautiful early evening walk.
2. Blog about a button you pressed that you weren’t supposed to. Why did you press it? What did it do? This doesn’t just refer to a physical button – it could be an emotional button too!
-Inspired by Laura ‘Are we nearly there yet’ and her Phantom Beeper
3. Find a picture of a shoe that best sums up your personality. Tell me why. OR find me picture of a shoe that represents the person you wish you could be.
-Inspired by the lovely Gabfran and her shoe-related blog, and Jo Beaufoix’s ‘Special’ Shoes
4. Tell me about something precious you gave away. Or give something away in response to this prompt and blog about it.
- Inspired by the very inspirational Muddling Along Mummy who has become a breastmilk donor.
5. Write about the best piece of advice you have ever been given. Or the worst piece of advice if you prefer!
- Inspired by ME! and all the fantastic advice you gave me this week.
Now here’s what you have to do. Write your post and publish it on your blog between now and Wednesday. On Wednesday come back and use the widget that will be up to paste in the URL of your post to share. Then take some time to read some of the other entries and leave some comment love! We’re not here to critique – just to have fun and support each other in our writing experiments. So be kind please.
Anyone who would like to submit something via email, or even anonymously will be more than welcome to do so. I’ll post them on the site here and include the link in Wednesday’s round-up.
Feel free to use the Workshop badge on your blog or as part of your post if you like. Code is here:
Note: I’m told Blogger does something a bit funny with the code so you’ll need to copy and paste it and then retype the quotation marks (“) as Blogger changes them for some reason.
See you Wednesday then!
P.S. And if you fancy plugging this workshop on the social network of your choice? Then that would be fan-frigging-tastic.
——————————————————–
This Writing Workshop is brought to you in association with Mama Kat’s Losin’ It – who’s lovely author came up with the concept and runs her own workshop over in the U.S.
Read MoreChristmas at the Great Toy Guide
As most of you know, I deputy edit at the fab new review site ‘Great Toy Guide’, where we provide independent, honest reviews by our team of mummy and daddy bloggers on toys and games for children aged 0-8.
Last week we launched our biggest feature yet, 100 of the best Christmas Toys for under £10.
I’m really proud of this one. We’ve sourced some AMAZING toys: a great mix of familiar names and old classics as well as some toys with a difference, including some gorgeous ethical toys like this Jewellery Making Kit (my absolute fave). I really, really would encourage you to go have a look – toys are organised by age to make it easier and I guarantee you’ll find an idea you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. I want to buy them all! Kai definitely has a few on HIS Christmas list, especially this fun bathtime toy, this giant bubble making kit, and this wonderful personalised memory game.
Personally I think we all tend to go a little overboard at Christmas: it’s so easy to fall into the habit of spending more and more each year. We’re not yet at the age where Kai is going to pressure us to buy the latest toys so we’re making the most of it and keeping it simple this year. I like that here you can get some lovely presents without spending a fortune.
As well our review feature we’re also offering THE best giveaway this Christmas. Four HUGE heaps of presents for your child, in four categories: baby, pre-schooler, girls and boys. We have some brilliant stuff, with vintage toys by Silver Cross and the best Early Learning Centre goodies, as well as your favourite character toys: Thomas and Friends, Ben 10, High School Musical, and loads more.
I am, quite frankly, gutted I can’t enter. But you can, so what are you waiting for!!
Oh, and it’s not to late to find yourself a gorgeous reusable advent calendar that you can bring out year after year as part of your family’s Christmas traditions. See our reviews for some of the best: the Pixie Advent Calendar that we got to test was especially stunning.
–
On a more personal note, I am ridiculously proud of this whole thing. Can you tell? So apologies for the gushing commercial post (which I know is a bit of a change from the norm) but this was too good not promote. We all worked so hard on this and seeing it all come together was fabulous. Thanks so much to the team who contributed, and especially to Editor Sally who worked the clock round and kept us all organised xx
Read More
