Day 294: Have Great Expectations!

So, here is a list of things that popped into my head this morning. Chose one to inspire your creativity today...

Honeycomb candles dyed pink, orange or purple.
Fairy cakes, shaped like black bats.
Umbrellas dripping with rhythmic raindrops.
Salt collected on your skin after swimming in the sea.
Fresh Coconuts filled with sour juice.
The crinkle of new wrapping paper.
Balloons.
Coffee in the mornings.
Talcum powder.
Church bells from the Abbey tower.
The ache of your jaw when you taste lemons.
Somewhere over the rainbow.
Counter clockwise.
After tomorrow we'll be finished.
Laughing until your tummy hurts.
Counting ancient steps weathered by walkers.

Why not make your own list and see where it takes you? Give your imagination a workout!

Day 276: Poetry Archive

This morning I have been looking at loads of children's poems on the poetry archive and they are great. So much imagery. There were funny ones, poignant ones, peculiar ones and loads more in between. Snake hotels, iguanas, battles, even scissors!

Take a look for yourself. There's an adults site too if you fancy. Even if you've only got five minutes, see if you can be inspired to get creative from poets who are writing now...you can even listen to the poet read them to you!

Here's a few I particularly liked:

The Sssnake Hotel by Brian Moses

Walking with my Iguana by Brian Moses

Winter by Judith Nicholls

Please Mrs Butler by Allan Ahlberg

Day 269: World Book Day

Today is a celebration of books, reading, writing, the lot. I've already been given a free book and it's only lunchtime! Not bad, eh?

So join in the celebrations. What's your favourite book? Why? Drop a comment and tell the world.

My favourite book (if I had to pick one) is The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffinegger. I love how it tells the story of a relationship from the point of view of both Henry and Claire with the backdrop of a bit of sci-fi. It's brilliant. Read it!

Check out the BBC for loads of tips for writing, author interviews and loads more. Be inspired!

Day 261: Performance Poetry

So last night I went to an event in Bath called 'words.' There were loads of people cramped into a tiny little coffee bar with a little microphone in the corner (to be honest, it probably wasn't needed by hey ho).

All in all, I had a pretty good night. I enjoyed listening to all these creative people and admiring how they'd managed their thoughts into a poem or two.

What struck me was how different their deliverance was. Some people read from their notebooks, mumbling or reading too fast, but others had memorised their poems. The difference was amazing. The ones who spoke without words in front of them were so much more confident. They added emphasise and feelings, moving their hands, arms or even their entire body to the rhythm of their words, like they were using all of themselves to share their poem with me.

It's funny really. You'd think the people who had books in front of them would be more confident. You can't forget them if they're right there in front of you. But actually, knowing your words means you don't have to concentrate on reading, but on saying. Isn't that what performance poetry is all about?

Just to give you a flavour of performance poetry, check out Anna Freedman at a poetry slam in Vancouver, Canada:

Day 218: Competition theme...?

Today, I NEED YOUR HELP!

I am running a writing competition at a school for 11-14 year olds and I need to chose a theme.

I've narrowed it down to three words so far, but I only want one. They are abstract nouns, so hopefully they can be interpreted in loads of different ways. The question is, which one would YOU like to write about the most?

Rumour

Curiosity

Reality

Please help me out here, guys. Just write the word you like the most by clicking on 'comment' below. Then we'll see which one wins! Oh, and feel free to do your own creative thing with these words...

Thanks for you're help.

Day 186: A little help please...

Today I want to talk to you about a project I'm doing. I'm proper excited about it and all in all, it's coming on a real treat.

So, I'm going into a secondary school in Bath to run a creative writing competition. Anyone in years 7, 8 or 9 can enter and I'll run workshops and one-to-one sessions to help them out. All entries will be turned into an anthology sold at an awards ceremony with readings and prizes. Oh, and the anthology will be sold to raise money for the school and a charity chosen by the winner...

...but, I need a theme. That's where you guys come in. I want it to be an abstract noun like, risk, so it's not too concrete. That'll give people's imaginations plenty of room to floowwww.

Any ideas...?

I might use two contrasting themes, like love and hate (but not that 'cause it's been done a million times!) Then they can chose...interesting...

So, put your creative thinking caps on please and help me out! You know what to do, put a little old comment below!

Thank you and goodnight.

Day 133: On cloud 9...

Check out my word cloud! It's the first chapter of my new story, The Secret in a jumble. What a great way to see what words you've used most often. Apparently, 'get' is my most commonly used word. How not exciting! I still think it looks pretty cool though.

For some reason it's not very big on my blog, but click here to see it in all it's glory.

Have a go at making your own cloud on Wordle. You could use you own writing or maybe a chapter from your favourite book. Use something online you find interesting like a article and see what words they use. I had loads of fun choosing the colours, font, word formation....you can make it your own.

See what words are in your cloud...

Day 116: David Almond, part 2

Technically, this is part three, or maybe even four. I know you probably think I'm obsessed, but to be fair, I did go to a talk by him the other day and it was great! I HAVE to say something about it or it just wouldn't be propa!

He had some pretty amazing things to say, but this one nugget blew me away, so I wanted to share it with you. (Warning: I may run away with the idea a bit!)

If I say the word, tent, what is the first thing that happens? You get a picture of a tent in your mind, right? If you think about it, words automatically become pictures, visions in our mind!

In my head I saw a bright red triangular tent with one door open and flapping in the wind. What did you see? I bet it was different to mine.

Do you see that stories are everywhere. Just by saying that one word, tent, a story has already began in my my mind. Why is the door open? It must be breezy. Who does it belong to? It's in a forest, I can see that...

If just one word can make all of that, what happens if I add, camel.

Wow, now it's completely changed. My tent is in a desert with a camel tied up and chomping next to it. The door is still flapping and all I can think of is how much sand is going got stick in that tent!

Amazing, huh! Stories are just waiting for us, ready to be made up and changed and used and enjoyed....

...I wonder what yours will be today...

Day 107: Mandy Coe

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting an amazingly inspirational poet called Mandy Coe. She writes for both children and adult, but she's really excited about inspiring creativity in young people. I was so impressed I even bought her new book, If you could see laughter!

There were so many things she said which are exciting and fun and creative...but I will rien myself in!

This is a tip she gave me: don't shy away from something because it's hard (ie, writing poetry, learning an instrument, painting a huge canvas). Why? Because if something is hard, you HAVE to be creative to make it work, which gives you a bigger sence of achievement!

For example, here is one of Mandy's exercises. I warn you, it's pretty tricky, but fun too. Give it a go and see how good you feel when you achieve it!

Choose one of these words: storm, rainbow, earthquake, darkness.

Now, write something about it (a description, how you feel about it/in it...) It could be a poem or just a few lines of prose, BUT you cannot use the letter E.

Here's mine,

Rainstorm
Today I got caught,
stuck on my own.
It was raining, you know,
and now I am soaking.

You try. Stretch your creativity further than E and see just how much you can do.

Day 100: Wonderful Words and David Almond

Woop woop! I've reached day 100 and the creative juices are still flowing! Yay!

OK, enough shenanigans. To celebrate the occasion in a properly creative way, I thought I'd give you 100 creative, inspiring words to use as you wish. Say them aloud and give them time. Roll them around on your tongue and appreciate how wonderful they sound:

creativity, languid, stupendous, cheese, catastrophe, endless, time, faces, monumental, considerate, appealing, justification, consequence, aloud, moon, abundant, yoghurt, sunshine, yellow, apparently, despite, brambles, fantastic, crisps, eleven, chocolate, anthology, inspirational, doctorate, ungulating, transparent, enough, glue, toilet, dangerous, tepid, xylophone, punctual, styrofoam, complicated, distance, honestly, banished, tickley, curious, amount, complicated, disease, rainbow, fascination, tomorrow, apple, joy, darkness, grace, liquid, toasted, lolly, bumbled, verity, stupid, swish, crackling, plop, disgusting, correct, handle, saliva, elusive, intrinsic, consider, tractor, temperature, bottle, walnut, kitten, munchkin, obviously, wash, momentum, sing, beautiful, dangle, squeeze, wax, coil, ball, venom, bobble, tug, copy, loaded, flute, cosmopolitan, rumble, illuminate, explain, tuna, stretch, huzzah!

There you have it! One hundred wonderful words. Try them in an accent! For example, you can't say, styrofoam in anything other than an American accent! It sounds amazing (reminds me of Bolt, watch it if you haven't seen it). I do have to give a quick mention to David Almond here, as he inspired this flow of words, so thanks!

Happy 100 Day!

Day 96: Your five words...

I have just finished reading a book by Marcus Sedgwick (who is an amazing author by the way. If you like dark, mysterious fiction, check him out). This particular book of his is called Kiss of Death. It's a vampire-type novel set in Venice and there's a bit at the end that got me thinking (dangerous, I know).

Now if you REALLY want to read this book, perhaps don't read today's blog, 'cause it does give away a bit of the mystery (but only a really small bit, an sub plot of the story, if you will).

Let me fill you in before I continue. In the book there is a diary entry from Sorrell's (one of the main characters) grandfather who died long ago from lack of sleep. Sorrell's father is now suffering the same illness and they read the diary to try and find some answers. The final diary entry is just five words,

'Sunshine. Glass. Aurora. Wine. Simono.'

The book then leaves it until the last page to reveal these word's meaning:

'Those were the things [he] loved more than anything in the world, and he wrote them down to preserve them forever.'

He was a glass maker, his wife was called Aurora and his son, Simono.

What a cool idea! Could you put down in only five words the things you love most about the world? The idea that words on a page are captured forever, long after we are gone is amazing. What would you write?

As I was pondering over what I would write, I had another thought, do you recon these five words would change over your life? I'm 23 now, but I think that when I'm seventy my five words would have changed. I might have married, had kids, grand kids, seen the world, written a book, done a bungee jump...who knows!

So, my task for you today is to find your five words, write them down and put them in a special place. Put the date on it and in twenty years time let me know if they are still the same...

Day 63: Give peas a chance

The other day, me and my sister where driving round the M25 coming back from a jolly camping trip. On our journey we went under loads of bridges as you would expect, but there was one which particularly caught my eye. Someone had written on a bridge in white paint, 'give peas a chance.'

Now, I've seen the graffiti on this bridge before, but I've never really found myself pondering over it's meaning...

Does it mean, don't eat peas? Or set peas free...if that's what they meant they would definitely have a lot of squashed peas on the M25! Maybe it's an anti-motorway campaign?

If you were going to go to all the effort of vandalising a bridge on the busy M25 would you really write the words 'give peas a chance'? I don't think I would.

My point is (yes I AM going somewhere with this) that millions of people (maybe thousands) read that message every day as they drive to work, holiday or wherever and it seems to me it's not really achieving much.

I decided to do a bit of 'research' into this phrase and it turns out it's been used all over the place. Advertisement for allotment spaces, healthy living, eating hummus (chick peas)...apparently even Paul McCartney used to say it on tour with the Beetles!

So it would seem this phrase is saying something after all. But, maybe it's there for the sole purpose of entertaining drivers during the boredom that is the M25. It certainly worked on me. I saw it last Monday and I'm still thinking about it!

So, to conclude (finally) I've decided that this (still rather odd) graffiti is in fact full of creativity and has inspired this very blog entry. Don't get me wrong, I am in no way applauding vandalism, but it is a fun game to play in your head...what would YOU write on a massive bridge to entertain drivers (creatively I mean, no rude ones please)? How could you entertain the masses with your words?

Something to think about...

Day 41: Words

"People around here didn't waste words; language was a tool, not a treat. You didn't roll it around on your tongue, revel in it."

'What I Was' by Meg Rosoff

If you are anything like me, then you probably use words way too much! I talk ALL the time, the more words the better. Chat, chat, chat.

Do you use more words when you're around people who don't talk very much, or do you tend to be the quiet one? Should we revel in words, or should we see them as a treat?

I guess the real question is, how do we use it in our creative work? Do you use words wisely?

If you write plays, scripts, poems, stories, articles, dialogue, comedy...then words are really important. It's vital to get the balance right. That good old saying sums it up pretty well, 'it's quality, not quantity.'

Think about the way you use words. Do you need to edit a bit more? Do you need to use a few more? How about the words you are using, is there one that would work better?

Think about it. How will you use your words...?