Sun and Celebrations.

A most delightful week with my son’s graduation – what a wonderful day we had. You will have to excuse me posting a proud mummy picture here – It just has to be done.

I've spent much time in the garden sorting out the flower beds and tickling the tomato and runner bean flowers – just to help the bees with their task. It is nice to see both bumble and honey bees buzzing around the garden working hard. The hanging baskets are/were looking stunning until the fierce rain ripped through them. After two hours of dead heading they are ready to bloom once more and give another good display. The roses around the front door, yes, I have them, look beautiful and the scent welcomes guests on arrival. I only hope I can keep them flowering all summer as there is an important date at the end of August that needs the garden looking it’s best.

 This week’s prompts need you to think celebration. What goes right? What goes wrong? Can things be saved or will things go from bad to worse? Use all your writing skills to create a scene that shows the different emotions that may occur during the celebrations and how your characters interact with each other during these events. Try thinking out of the box and bring in elements you may never have used before. I've popped a few settings down for you to work with, but feel free to set your celebration in a setting of your own choice.

1.       Wedding breakfast.

2.       Uncle Alan’s funeral.

3.       University graduation. (sorry had to include this)

4.       ‘Full Moon’ woodland party.

5.       Old friend returning home.

Remember to use all the senses and have fun with it, after all it is a celebration.

So go on, get writing. 

Tomorrow I will write!

The last few weeks have been frantic, covering for a colleague and playing catch up on my own work and recuperating from my illness at the same time – not easy. This has meant resting in the evenings so that on the writing front not a lot has been happening on paper, but the mind has been having a wonderful time coming up with interesting opportunities for my characters to endure. Tomorrow, which is Sunday, I will be spending my time in the garden writing. I've so much to catch up on since I last opened up my writing files.

Last week my wonderful son got his degree and a job, can’t ask for better than that. It is a relief and he is looking forward to the new challenges ahead. With the graduation celebrations imminent it looks like we might have a hot sunny day for the big day. We have decided that we are going to be going up the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth as we've spoken about it all the time and never done it.

 This week’s prompts are below. Use them to inspire a piece of writing. This can be a monologue, short story, play-let or poem.

• “The button didn't work!”
• “How do you mean, you can’t stop it?”
• “I knew it was deep, but not this deep, sorry.”

Make them light, dark or downright daft, but show the correct passion in the work to make it come alive for your reader.

So go on, get writing. 

A notebook challenge & Topic Tin prompts.

Firstly let me apologise for the lack of blog last Friday. I have been a wee bit poorly and ended up in hospital. That, thankfully, is over and done with now and I'm just doing what the doctors said and resting up. I'm hoping that that will mean that I can soon get back to the normal me and take hold of the reins at work, with my writing and my home.

Throughout this period of illness I had a small inkling as to how losing the ability to walk, use your hands fully and have a ‘correctly’ functioning brain and how this effects everything in your life. I am hoping that the memories of the pain, struggle and frustration that came with it will help me to use this in my character development in the future. With this in mind I've put down those feelings into one of my character notebooks and so that when I require my character to have a certain issue I can read back and remember how it made me feel, and with luck, it will help to make my characters fully rounded. This is something I would recommend every writer does. Sometimes we forget the power of the things that affect us so dramatically at the time and as the years pass those memories dwindle and it is very hard to recapture the feelings. For a writer it is important to hold all those thoughts, feelings and consequences close so that they can be used to enhance their future work.

So, if you’ve yet to start this kind of notebook, go out and buy one especially for the job. You will never regret it. I have three now, all full and often referred to.  This is your first task for this week.

For the second task you have the choice of one of the four options below from the TOPIC TIN.

1. Write a Chocolate article for a woman’s or a food magazine. Research your market and submit your article. 
2. Poetry for a Cats/Dogs magazine – research – get guidelines and submit. 
3. Why do women always want to change men? This can be an article for a men’s magazine or female magazine. Seek out your target publication and submit. 
4. Shelly say’s goodbye. Short story or poem. Select your market and submit.

Hopefully this will keep you busy for a little while. If you’ve completed one why not try a second or third or do all four if you are inspired.

So, go on, get writing.