Let it be... so there will be

The garden chores are still ON, and I don't mind them. Not that I minded them over the summer, but now it's different. More relaxed somehow.

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Re: the title of this post.

I have written a small story as a homework for our writers' group.

The task was to use ten special words, but I'm not the dadaistic type, you know, I seek meaning.

So my story is about a middle aged woman who is meeting her former friend only to realize that said friend and she have parted ways, drifted apart...since who knows when... but now they have nothing in common.

She is not really happy with her finding, but not really sad, either, because this is just how things are.

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I wrote this story and read it aloud among my mates in the writers' group. They said this and that and I edited the text and then edited some more. And then I stopped editing.

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I realized that one single short story can (may) not tell all the aspects of this phenomenon in one go.

I wrote what I did because that is how I felt at the time of the writing.

Now I have changed and my focus has probably shifted.

The subject (drifting apart) still bugs me, so I guess I will have a second attempt and a third, and all will (or may) be different from each other.

But if I keep editing the first one, there will be none.

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So I decided to allow my writing to have its faults and hiccups and whatnot.

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Cheers,

SzF

Summer

I apologize for my readers for not being around here really much, uhm, like, at all.

Summer is so full of garden chores, we are in the middle of a renovation of one room, it's been going on for a month now, since we hardly find time to move onto the next step, and also we at times just get into the suv and drive to get away from it all.

Huh.

I'll be back.

Sometime.

Cheers,

SzF.

Reflect the feelings

Last time we had a meeting with our writers' group we were given a short task. We had to write a couple of sentences about a place.

The description of the place had to reflect the emotions you felt when you were there at that specific place.

A really interesting and useful exercise, indeed.

Have you tried it?

Did you like it?

Do you use this intentionally or unintentionally in your writing?

I think this method is like salt.

If you don't use it, your writing may become dull. A much needed one indeed, but one that should not be overused.:)

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I wrote about 6 to 8 sentences and the leader of our group said she needed this particular piece for the upcoming anthology. Only that I have to expand it into at least one page. Geez.

I am good at cutting out material. Expanding is a pain :) 

But I have not given up.

:)

 

normal

I guess there is a saying out there about rejection letters. It goes along that the only person who doesn't get any rejection letters is the one who never submits any material to anywhere.

Well, I did submit two of my poems for a contest.

The contest is held by an off and online magazine that publishes a collection of writings two or three times a year. Each issue is preceeded by a contest, where the editors announce words to create an atmosphere, a call to the writings.

The winners get a small~ish,but fair amount of money and publication in the paper. This is how I got published my short story in the spring of 2014. The words were 'Voices in the dark'.

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Now my poems were not good enough, but hey, I gave it a try.

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This time the words the magazine used translate to 'Someone might enter' (the room).

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I guess this is just the way. More contest, more writing... and sometimes, success :)

 

A video about the opening

There is a video HERE, please follow the link.

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(for those of you only wish to see me, check at 1:13. I am standing in the far left with an orange scarf. And also at 1:20 again and at 1:33, too. I guess it is not much of a pain to watch between 1:13 and 1:37)

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The paintings are cool and some of my favourites are shown from 2:10.

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As for the recital.

I had three poems to read and I almost learned them by heart. At the peace of my empty home, when no one was around I was able to recite them almost completely. Like... I had to check one or two times.

I learned to play with the words in order to convey the message or let the words shine more. Or more obviously.

At the event however, I was a bit nervous.

There were so many people around. There was a microphone.

I looked more than two times into my papers, but the feedbacks and congratulations indicate that I was able to recite loudly, clearly and to the audience (not onto my paper). My husband said that I seemed to have immersed myself into the poems somehow and that my reading was lively.

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I really tried to do my best :)

An update on the paintings

For details, see the post just below this one.

But it turned out that I will not read my poem only, but two other small poems as well.

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Oh my.

It seems that the leader of our writers' group was so impressed by my reading at the "Garage Sale" event (see some posts below) that she wanted me to read aloud my poem and two others as well.

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These two poems, written by a fellow member in the writers' group are kind of simple at first sight and funny in a certain way. They contain some play on the words, but all in one, they are a bit depressive

They have words like 'nuclear apocalipse' and 'Geiger Mueller meter' and 'scafander' and 'irreversible'.

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In a sense I am lucky, though. The event will take in the Community House of Arts of our town and I am familiar with that building. This is where I go to every week for our choir rehearsal. The opening ceremony will take place in the big hall and this is where the photos will be on display, too.

Last time we finished our choir session I stayed a bit longer in the building until no one was there in the hall and tried to say some of the complicated words aloud.

It felt weird, yet I knew I was doing the right thing.

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I never would have guessed I would be thrilled with this kind of acting. If anyone asked me like 10 years ago like hey, how about reciting three poems at a public event, I would have freaked out at the very idea. Now I see it as if I had another tool at my hands to explore the world.

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I have no idea how it will turn out.

A poem for a painting

My writers' group has met a young artist, a painter. She is going to have an exhibition on 14 January 2016, and we, member of the group were asked to contribute with small poems.

During the opening ceremony our poems will be read and I suppose all poems will be printed out and positioned beside the paintings on the wall.

This young lady has a special talent and this is the painting that inspired me the most. (Please follow the link.)

She has many other interesting works like this and this, but the deadline for submitting the poems is 4th, so I am happy to have come up with one. :)

I will be reading it on the 14th :)

Compress, diminish, decrease

For the words of the title I looked up the antonyms of expand at thesaurus dot com, which is, by the way, an excellent source of words for me as a foreigner and a translator of English.

And the reason?

Every or every other year our writers group issues a book centered around one theme. The last one was around food for example.

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The theme of the next (2016) issue is finding new homes, approaching and/or welcoming strangers, or strangers in general arriving to new destinations.

I guess the idea was inspired by the waves of migration and by the thoughts wrapped around the whole package.

I do not wish to elaborate on that particular matter.

We are all entitled to have opinions and we all do/think as we see fit. But I digress.

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A couple of years ago, like 3 or 4 years ago I had this idea about a novel. I imagined the central figure a young man about 20~25 who encounters a stranger. They make friends. The protagonist is a simple young countryman living in the 19 century. The stranger, our protagonist does not (yet?) know, is someone from outer space or from somewhere else I don't know yet :) The stranger has come to destroy our culture as his ancestors has been doing it little by little over the centuries. The protagonist welcomes the stranger not knowing that helping him eventually will cause some major problems.

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Now, this 2016 book requires a short story.

So I guess I may compress my idea of a novel into a short version. Or I just may explore one small detail of the plot in general. I don't know. I am unsure, but at least there is a drive within me.

I may not never write that novel set in a historical time. That is too big a chunk for me, unexperienced, anyway.

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My question: do you write short stories to explore a certain part of the realm of your novel, backstory, whatever?

I guess it is a good idea.

 

Garage sale ~ a public reading

Public readings in our writers' group are usually quite cozy. It's mostly just us, members of the group, one or two relatives and random passers by.

But not this time.

I stopped counting the number of participants at 50.

And unlike in the past, we did not just read our stuff while sitting comfortably in our chair.

No.

This time there was a definite speaker's stand with a microphone.

Oh.

The one who read had to work his/her way in to the front of everyone and read standing by the wooden stand and speak to the microphone while facing the audience.

Oh. My. Stage. Fright.

But I survived!

And managed to get some words of honest appreciation, too.

Here how it worked.

The theme this time was "Garage sale". Eleven members of the group had one item. These items were made into a list. The task was to write anything in your style and plot of preference. There was a word count limit and you had to incorporate your item plus at least 4 other items from the list.

All the items were displayed for the audience to see the whole time.

My item was a pair of rubber boots. Other items included a perfume bottle, a set of poker cards in a box; a weaving loom,  a diary, a painted Maria with Jesus and so on.

I recall a short surrealistic poem about the contents of a room; a mysterious short story about a weeping Maria in a Greek hotel; a funny short piece about a Soviet spy during WW II; and a dramatic piece that involved the recalling and erasing of memories while developing photographs in a dark room. There were 20 readings.

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My piece was about an elderly couple. At the beginning the man chops wood kindlers for the stove, but the lady calls him inside and dislikes his cutting the wood in those rubber boots. She insists that chopping firewood in those boots is silly, for the small waste falls into the boots making the job uncomfortable. The argument turns into a heated one. At the end the man sets the set of poker cards flying into the air by kicking the box. Finally he returns to chopping, to his axe and keeps wearing the boots and lets the small wate fall into the boots.

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With this short story I kind of looked into our future with my husband :) I wanted to write about arguing. Write an unpleasant conversation. Or something unsettling. Because this is what I usually DON'T write about. I sort of stepped out of my comfort zone and wrote about interaction between partners. I voiced their negative feelings towards each other. I also wanted to show their frustration. At the end of the day though, I don't think these two truly dislike one another.

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One commenter asked me whether I spied on some elderly neighbours. She found my characters so alive that she said I must have eavesdropped some of their conversation.

Another commenter said that my piece was among the best reads this evening and she was able to imagine a complete novel around this couple.

More than one commenter said that part of the success of my story came from the way I presented it.

Well, I did rehearse it like 2 or two times, but I thought I was uneasy with the microphone, with speaking behind  a formal speaker's stand. Wow. A success :) I mean I thought the story was among my better ones, but getting praised for presentation? That surprised me :)

Crossroads

I am stating the more than obvious when I say that I am not a writer.

For a writer writes.

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Some people write for getting their names printed. I am not one of them. Well, not now. I used to be that person but since I have been publishing professional articles in monthly agriculture magazines since 2009 I am good. The need to get my name on printed paper is checked.

Some people write for getting paid. With those magazines? Check.

Some people write for handing out advice, to get their opinion heard with masses. With those magazines? At times, check, too. 

Some people strive to enter the realm of literature or at least, some part of it.

Well, I also got into two of the anthologies of our writers' group these years. I got only into two and not four because I declined the latter two opportunities for financial reasons.

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But some people write because there is something buggering them and they either found the solution or are in the way to get there. Well at times, I am one of those.

There is hope :)

You know, I wonder if those magazines get all my creative juices and there is nothing left for 'other' writing.

If this is not the case then I am either 1) lazy or otherwise hindered to get my thoughts in order and set writing or 2) I have nothing to say.

If writing articles for magazines do take my juices it means that I am low on writing power then I have two options 1) accept it and write only when absolutely needed. Those do happen, mind you. But like one or two times a year. 2) raise my activities in one way or another.

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So much for today and I am leaving for the moment with this photo.

Taken in 18 November 2015 in the Pilis Mountains.

Oh well, this Thursday our writers' group is to have a public reading. More on that later.