Week 10 - Creative Beginnings

March has arrived and so it's time for Resolution number 3 - Do Something Creative!

Creativity is different for everyone.  My talented friend Sarah, knits the most amazing cardigans and jumpers.  My son creates stunning pastel and oil paintings for his Art coursework.  My mum makes her own handmade cards and my good friend Nicki from http://sunshinegirlnicola.blogspot.co.uk/ can knock up a quilt in a weekend!

My Childhood Favourites

All of these crafts are wonderful ways to flex your creative muscles.  For me, it's writing that ignites my creative side.  Writing stories inevitably came from my passion for reading.  As soon as I learnt to read I was hooked, I was a walking sponge with pigtails!

My favourite book was
Enid Blyton's 'The Folk of the Faraway Tree' and I still have my original copy some 30+ years later.

When I wasn't reading, I was writing short stories and little poems about the seagulls outside my bedroom window.  At the tender age of 15 I had my exam coursework - a Children's story - read out in class, a proud moment.  I have written a number of picture books but like the hundreds of other wannabe writers, my stories have gathered dust in a desk drawer.

As I got older I picked my pen up once more and had another stab at it, this time concentrating on magazines.  I was published in my local newspaper, in Fate & Fortune, Slimming World Magazine, Your Home, Writing Magazine, Woman Family Health Special, Scrapbooking, Spirit & Destiny and spent six months as a Reader Agony Aunt for Woman.

Yet again life took over and I laid my pen down to rest with the usual thoughts swirling through my mind, 'not enough time,' and 'not good enough.'

So on New Year's Eve I decided that I needed to stop procrastinating and just get on with it - Make Time!

I'm 40 years old and the only past time I have ever enjoyed has been dabbled with and then stuffed in a drawer - no more!

"You will never win if you never begin."

 

March is all about being creative and even though we are only a few days in I have been a very busy bee.  To get the creativity flowing I have:-

1. Joined a Creative Writing Class through Solihull College
2. Submitted short stories and flash fiction to five writing competitions (told you I'd been busy!)
3. Written book reviews on amazon, one review for Closer! by Julia Douglas a lovely feel good read with a dash of girl power!
4. Managed to achieve something I thought was impossible - I have written every single day so far!  That includes, blog posts, stories, newsletter for Body & Soul, letters to magazines and homework but I realised the 'not enough time' was a fib, if you love something enough you'll make the time.  I have!

Have a think about which creative pursuit you could get involved with.  Next week I will be showing you one of our creative writing exercises from college - it's so much fun and I know you will all want to have a go yourselves.  Until then I'm off to fill another notebook, have a great week. x