Plodding on - balancing creativity and CPD (and avoiding CBA)
February was a bust - an absolute bust. With everything that’s going on both personally and *gestures at the entire planet* it’s been A Lot. So let’s skip straight onto March. On to daffodils, and warming earth, and silver birch buds.
On the hob - work in progress
I’m always working on more than one thing at once. If I’m knitting/crocheting then I currently have 2 x cardigans, 1 x dresses, and 1 x jumpers that are located near the sofa.
It’s the same with writing (albeit not near the sofa). I’m working on a short story (as part of Writers’ HQ’s Write a Short Story Festival) and I’m working on a children’s novel (code name: Project Rec). I am finding that the crafting hobbies have been feeding the creative practice. Now that it’s spring, I always find it easier to crack on with ideas that have been percolating, but balancing this with the urge to “cast on” new story ideas. In order to do battle with this cycle of idea - write - new shiny idea - write - first idea languishes in dust I’m using Google Keep a bit more actively than I have done. I’m capturing the ideas when they come and caching them for later. Stories that are safely stored before I begin the process of brewing them up.
Learning, always learning - CPD
I recently gave up one of my contracted jobs - mostly because I was so tired during weeknights and weekdays, oh, and weekends. This has freed up a little time for sleeping AND CPD. So, I’m gleefully joining in with the Story Festival and refreshing my mind with previous exercises from Writers’ HQ (I pay for my membership and I think that they’re great). I’m also trying to be a bit more active with my Golden Egg membership too, even though I hate using Facebook with a firey passion!
As a member of the Society of Authors, I also went along to today’s professional workshop - How to Run Writing Workshops - which featured Kirsty Logan, Majorie Lotfi, and Nadine Aisha Jassat. This was a great refresher and I’m looking forward to running some more workshops later this year outside of the contracted job! The video should be on the SoA’s Vimeo site soon.
Filling the well - replenishing creativity
I went to London halfway through April, primarily to see the Fantasy: Realms of the Imagination at the British Library and have a bit of a London explore. My partner and I also did the “typical tourist in London” thing of “catching dinner and a show”. The former Frida Camden for a selection of appertisers (delicious and affordable) , the latter the excellent Back to the Future: the Musical at the Adelphi. (This was hands down possibly the best show I’ve ever seen. I’ve been lucky to have seen, and have been, in a few productions in my 45 short years on this earth!)
During February I also managed to get not one but two local productions in: Gaslight at Todmorden Hippodrome and the delightfully shady Hay Fever at Hebden Bridge Little Theatre. For a small valley, the talent here punches above its weight!
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That’s it, I think, in terms of an update. I am sending so much love and hugs out there. It’s difficult when we’re presented with war crimes, with hatred, with fear, with uncertainty to create anything be it music, writing, art. But it’s important - to badly paraphrase Brecht - to make art in the dark times.
