Tag Archives: National Poetry Writing Month

Goals for 2019

01 Tuesday Jan 2019

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Last Friday I went to a workshop that I found through Meetup.com. I frequently attend Meetup events that have highly variable outcomes – some have been really great and positive, like one group for artists which was really positive and motivating for several months. Other times, like a board game night I went to recently can be full of people who make it not fun. But to get back to the point, this workshop was to create a vision board. These are essentially a big seven year plan with pictures. I’d heard of vision boards before, I thought they were mainly nonsense, but it sounded like it might be fun.

When I got there, a room full of women did a meditation and then cut and pasted pictures out from magazines, some of which where twenty years old, onto big coloured cardboard sheets. I’m going to re-do it – either as a list or with pictures from the internet which more closely match what I’m looking for. The magazine pictures were a bit too commercial and a bit too old school for me.

fireworks

Traditionally one of the first things I do in the new year is make up my goals for the next twelve months. Many of my goals remain the same from last year; I’ll do NaNoWriMo again, and NaPoWriMo, as they both generate a good amount of first draft material.

I’m not going to do a fringe show this year, but Alex and I are planning to work on another top-secret project instead. We’re also looking at writing a sitcom and will do a show in 2020.

I have a couple of maybe goals in there too. I have a manuscript that I started last year but abandoned because I couldn’t get the pacing right; I’ll go back to that project to see if it’s salvageable as a short story or novella. I’m also thinking about publishing one of my other back-catalogue manuscripts in the last quarter of the year, but that will depend on how much time and energy I have by then.

My 2019 Goals!

  • Publish ‘Discovery of the Franklins’
  • NaNoWriMo 2019
  • Finish manuscript from NANoWriMo 2018
  • NaPoWriMo 2019
  • Sitcom
  • Top Secret Project
  • Wasted Monday performances
  • Blogging
  • Life Models’ Society Exhibition
  • Life Models’ Society 30th anniversary

Maybe/if I have time:

  • Self-publish one of my other manuscripts
  • Finish/rework shorts story/novella

I’m glad I did the vision boarding workshop. Long term goal setting exercises are important to undertake every so often; it makes me feel less like I’m making things up as I go along. I’ll re-evaluate against the long term and annual goals as I go to make sure my priorities and values haven’t changed along the way (this happens at work all the time!).

I hope you’ve all had a productive, happy, and positive 2018. I wish you all of that for 2019. I’m starting to make my own luck and I’m really loving it.

The End of the Dirty Thirty

30 Saturday Apr 2016

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April is National Poetry Writing Month, or NaPoWriMo. I decided to do it this year, sort of on a whim, and then I forgot till 5 April, so I was four behind! I’ve caught up and now have only today’s and two more to finish the ‘dirty thirty’, as my friend calls it. I’ve decided that since I forgot, I’m allowed to go a couple of days over and finish on Monday.

I’ve had some fun writing every day, but some days it was a struggle. I think there are a few poems that are just terrible, and will probably never see the light of day, but there are others which work quite well.

I took day 11, which was to order the titles of books in your shelf into a found object poem, and day 12, which was about tea and being a grown up, to my writing group today. A lot of people liked the book titles one, and there was a bit of a mixed reaction to the other.

I found it interesting that one member of the group, a woman who is in her eighties if she’s a day, commented that one never really feels like a grown up. This idea that you’re bluffing your way through life apparently persists. I keep thinking it will go away, but I don’t think it does.

I’ll have to think of something for May, perhaps a music challenge. Anyway, to wrap up NaPoWriMo for the year, in a way, I present day 11 and day 12.

 

Book Spines

Pretty things
In My Skin
Lost Souls
Mutants
Oblivion

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Books from my shelf

The Broken Shore
The Big Sleep
The Dark Half
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Oblivion

Perfect Phrases
Leaves of Grass
Crack Down
Junky
Bleak House
Oblivion

 

Tea and Anxiety

Warm and liquid and brown.
Well sort of tan I guess.
Swish you around my mouth
Feel you sliding down my throat
To warm my belly.

Ah, you’ve been such a friend.
Not as much caffeine as your cousin
Coffee, who makes me jitter and shake.
There’s no anxiety with you.

There is a bit of an aftertaste
Sometimes, when I’ve finished my sip
There’s something that lingers
Like something you’ve forgotten to do

So often I feel like I’m failing
At being an adult
At fulfilling societal expectations
Which is hard because I don’t want to
Fulfil expectations.
But you can’t help feeling that pressure can you?
Ah well, at least there’s always tea.

NaPoWriMo + MICF

08 Friday Apr 2016

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In my last post, I mentioned that I was thinking of doing NaPoWriMo, that is, National Poetry Writing Month. The idea is that you do one poem every day in April, and then you have thirty poems, and some good habits. I did it in 2014 and enjoyed the experience, even though the poems were of very mixed quality.

Only I forgot that I was going to do NaPoWriMo until Tuesday (5th). So I was like ‘Ah, crap!’. I’ve caught up a little bit but still three behind.

I forgot because I was all distracted by the Melbourne International Comedy festival. I’ve seen a lot of shows. I like seeing lots of shows. I like seeing the different stuff people do. I like having an excuse to go up to performers after they get off stage and gush at them in the hope of getting a nice hug. Sometimes it even works! WOO! Bart and Nicole, I’m looking at you!

Here’s a brief list of shows I have seen and can recommend:

Mel Buttle’s Up to Pussy’s Bow: Mel’s from Brisbane and she’s obsessed with Gumtree. Stand-up. Very good.

Luisa Omielan’s Am I Right Ladies?: Luisa is from the UK, she does stand-up with dancing and a killer soundtrack. Excellent.

Velvet: Not sure if it technically counts as comedy, it’s a cabaret/circus/variety show. It’s expensive but boy is it worth the entry price! Sexy glittery good times!

Hannah Gadsby’s Dogmatic: It’s a journey through Taylor Swift lyrics and Hannah’s no woe life. Stand-up with intellectual weight. Many lols. Loved it.

Wil Anderson Fire At Wil: The title doesn’t work in America, so get into it here. For reasons why Malcolm Turnbull is a comedians nightmare and other political stand-up hilarity.

Michelle Brasier’s Space Tortoise: What could be better than a singing, dancing tortoise who wants to be a cosmonaut? Not much. Amazing.

Bart Freebairn’s Unlimited Comedy Battle Spirit: Making the everyday absurdity funny, and making absurd hilarity everyday. Weird stand-up also featuring very tight pants. Gold.

Ali McGregor’s Late-Nite Variety-Nite Night: For those late nights when you just want a bit of a flavour of some other shows. Also featuring Ali’s glorious vocal stylings and the Omnichord.

Peter and Bambi Heaven’s The Magic Inside: It’s a magical cabaret show with so many costume changes the mind boggles. You’ll never look at fruit and veg the same way again. Brilliant.

Juan Vesuvius’s Calypso Nights: Juan, Two?: This one requires a bit more work from the audience, but if you’re concentrating you are rewarded with some high-level lols. There are also some excellent physical slapstick gags. Defies classification. Get it in ya!

Becky Lucas’s Baby: Lazy-Feminist-Lady-Stand-up extraordinaire. May or may not feature actual baby. Bloody good shit here.

Andy Matthew’s Plenty: A curling, twisting, beautifully curated narrative journey through existential dread, death, and quantum physics. Makes you think hard. Makes you laugh. Good stuff.

Nicole Henriksen is Makin’ it Rain: Ever wanted to know what it’s actually like to be a stripper? This show is Nicole getting real vulnerable with bonus nudity. Epic.

So um, yeah. I’ve been busy eating up all the art! If I come up with a poem that’s any good I’ll put it up here. Otherwise I’ll try to pack in a few more laughs before the MICF closes on 17 April. Big love!

Comedy Festival – GO!

25 Friday Mar 2016

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Last night was the first night of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF). I went out to see two shows; Mel Buttle’s Up to Pussy’s Bow and Luisa Omielan’s Am I Right Ladies?

Two beautiful, strong, funny women. I bought this awesome Bumper Book for Boys, published in 1938, from Mel for 35cents. I’m looking forward to seeing more MICF shows over the next few weeks, it’s such a fun time to be out in Melbourne!

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Bumper Book for Boys, it’s going to look great in my flat above a shop in Fitzroy North. I’m not a hipster, I swear.

I’m also giving consideration to doing NaPoWriMo again. That’s National Poetry Writing Month, the idea being that you challenge yourself to write a poem a day for the month of April. I did it two years ago and I quite enjoyed it, although the standard of the poems that came out varied wildly. I don’t know whether I’ll have the time to do it properly, with the comedy festival and the band and the new job and the life modelling and the trying to organise and write our Fringe show, but I might as well give it a try.

If you’re out at the MICF and you see me, say hello! If you have recommendations for shows, tell me! If you want to do the poem a day challenge I’d love to hear from you, it’s always nice to know that there are others out there who are attempting the same stuff I am!

Swapping one challenge for another

01 Thursday May 2014

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April was the month of poems, May will be the month of photos.

I started the National Poetry Writing Month challenge one day late, but managed to complete the month with 30 new poems under my belt. I’m the first to admit that their quality is not consistent in any way, there were days where I’ve written a potential masterpiece, and other days where the drivel I came out with embarrasses me to look at. None the less, I plan to print out all of the poems from the month and take them to a nice coffee shop somewhere and read them over, a little bit like I did with my novel manuscripts. I’ll also have a think about editing them but that might have to wait a few weeks so I can come back to them with fresh eyes.

Given that the April poetry challenge is over, a good friend and fellow blogger, Katharine, suggested that I take up a new challenge, Fat Mum Slim’s Photo a Day challenge for May. So that’s what I’m going to do! I’ll try to post all of the photos here on my blog, probably only once a week due to life commitments (study in particular is hectic at the moment) along with social commitments and work and writing and yknow, stuff! Plus I don’t know whether you all want to be bombarded with my (potentially not very good) photography all the time.

In other news, I’ve been feeling pretty up beat of late. I’ve made a few important decisions regarding the second half of the year which have changed my head space for the better, and I’ve met some amazing new people who fill me with inspiration and energy, which is nice.

So, with that, bring on the photos! Feel free to sign up and photograph with me!

Photo a Day guidelines - by Fat Mum Slim

Photo a Day guidelines – by Fat Mum Slim

Dudley

13 Sunday Apr 2014

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This is my contribution for Day 12 NaPoWriMo – maybe it’s a found poem, maybe it’s blank verse, maybe it’s comedy or maybe it’s just an exploration of what happens when you replace words with Dudley.

Dudley 

Dudley outbreak in local school!
New Dudley flavoured Tim Tams.
Would you allow a Dudley in your house?

Dudleys take on Pope at Vatican audience.
What do we want? DUDLEY! When do we want it? NOW!
Smoke Camels, for that rich Dudley flavour.

My Dudley brings all the boys to the yard.
Is your child up to date with their Dudley shots?
Money can’t buy you Dudley.

Roses are red, violets are Dudley.
Dudley convention a hit!
Ask your doctor if Dudley is right for you.

Archaeologists find Dudley in carpark.
Abbott announces Dudley plan.
I can’t believe it’s not Dudley!

Dudley: have you had yours today?

NaPoWriMo – One to Sixteen

09 Wednesday Apr 2014

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Last night I was thinking about William S. Burroughs and cut-ups, so today’s poem was created by writing sixteen lines, some of which had something to do with each other, others are more like observations of my surroundings. I numbered each line and then used a random number generator to re-arrange the lines into the poem.

One to Sixteen

Let the world remember us
Librarians shush as I walk through
White fellas are always the most important
Or leaves of a sick plant
White fellas are always the most important
My shoes clomp along the street
I carry an umbrella
Other colours have to wait in line
Because it’s raining today
Nothing means anything if no one experiences it
White fellas are always the most important
Peek around corners for inspiration
Some people have purple hair
Without us making our marks so deep
Ella has a favourite restaurant
Locked doors peak interest
Librarians shush as I walk through
Her eyelashes are like feathers
Breathe in, breathe out

NaPoWriMo – A Haiku

02 Wednesday Apr 2014

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Just when I thought I couldn’t be busier in April, what with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival gigs I have booked and the awesome stuff on at the Wheeler Centre to go to, along with commitments to work and uni readings and assignments and maintaining a social life, I have, on a whim, decided to add NaPoWriMo to my list of things to do.

NaPoWriMo is National Poetry Writing Month, in the tradition of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, held in November). NaPoWriMo is a commitment to the goal of writing one poem per day for the month of April.

I’ve already started on the backfoot having decided to take up the challenge on the second day of April, but I’m going to power through and hopefully I won’t fall behind.

I plan to publish some of my poems on this blog, the good  ones or ones that have a specific relevance to the blog, and in that vein, I present to you my first NaPoWriMo poem.

NaPoWriMo – A Haiku

One poem per day
Just for the month of April
It can’t be that hard.

Surely I can find
Something meaningful to put
In verse once a day

Each form will provide
A challenge to overcome
Many will be crap

A few will be great
These I will show to the world
Jewels in my crown

So if nothing else
It will stretch my comfort zone
And my poetry skills