Category: blog

blog, writing

Showing up

Lauryn

What is it day 4?

I’m surprised to say that even doing this for four days is making a difference to me.

In four days of showing up, I’ve learned quite a bit.

I’ve thought about problems in a new way, and solutions have come to problems I couldn’t even conceptualise. I am looking forward to seeing where we will be by the end of this month!

I’m trying to think about what other things I can challenge myself with.

Cleaning? Drinking 2L of water a day?
I already know I can read a novel a day for a month. I know I can write 1700 words a day for a month and end up with a 50000 word novel draft. I can draw a picture a day for 30 days. What is next?

Is there something that you need to overcome?

Maybe all you need is a bit of practice?

I know there is a challenge I’m following right now which is all about decluttering and ridding your house of something, one a day for 30 days. 

Maybe it’s not for you, but what if you did give a 30 day challenge a try? What if 30 days was all it took to solve that problem for you?

blog, writing

Being thankful changes my perspective.

Lauryn

I’m not posting this today but I am writing this today on the third consecutive day of my personal challenge to write more blog posts.

So writing challenge, Here I am, I am showing up!

And I’m thankful. I’m thankful for the idea of the challenge, I’m thankful even though I feel so lost in writing blog posts and it seems impossible that anyone is ever going to read this, that I’m still here. I’m still typing. I’m thankful that I have seen another challenge through, and I know I can do something, even if it’s hard for 30 days. 

I’m a bit of a quitter if I’m not feeling the right flow, so I’m thankful I’m hanging on!

Today I had an interesting ‘Thankfulness encounter’ or maybe ‘lack of thankfulness encounter’.

I know a girl who had a perfectly fun and wonderful night, who then completely dissolved because her brother got lollies where he was and she didn’t get lollies where she was.

The world was against her, the organisers were against her, everything was completely unfun and you couldn’t do anything to make her see the facts.

It made me think, how often do I do that? How often am I perfectly content with where I am in my creative life, until I see where someone else is at? Instead of abundance, the mindset is of lack, not enough, not good enough.

But the reality is that both situations are just different. And I’m sure we would not look down on someone who was earlier or in a different place in their creative journey than us. So why are we doing it to ourselves?

We think we might like the other “Grass is greener” situation better but if it came to swapping, we might find we aren’t quite ready for that sacrifice or that amount of hours, or work or we aren’t mentally there yet. But we will get there. One day we will be ready. One step at a time. No jumping up stairs, that always ends in tears and pain.

When I get stuck in a mindset of lack, I try to admit as soon as possible what the underlying emotion is. Am I jealous? Am I uncomfortable with change? Am I feeling lonely? Do I wish I was further down the creative road without paying the consequences?

Then the question, is feeling bad actually helping me be where I need to be? Is it serving me well?

And then I get to the business of thankfulness. Sometimes it’s only after a lot of thankfulness that my logical and reasonable brain overpowers the emotional one and I can see the facts.

I’m actually really happy for everyone on their creative journeys and I’m thankful for being me. My goals will be achieved at the right time for me. Being thankful really pays dividends.

blog, writing

Black Lives Matter

Lauryn

A friend laughed at me once, saying “You only listen to white people music!”

I didn’t realise how true it was until I thought about who sang my favourite songs, and then, it got quite embarrassing. I had just blindly listened to the radio and the songs that were fed me, and didn’t think about the people who wrote them and their life experiences.

The Black Lives Matter campaigns and the #publishingpaidme tweets of 2020 made me revisit again what books I was reading, and whose stories I was paying attention to.

So I made it my intention to read diversely. I want to know about people’s experiences that are different from mine, even if I think differently. It’s been great!

I stick with the genres that I like reading, YA romance, YA fantasy, I also like a bit of adventure or detective work if there is some kind of romance amongst it all, but I am committed to diversity.

I have even looked at a cover and wanted to put the book down because of my prejudice against it (because it was about someone who fit into a diverse group that I fit into but I wasn’t feeling the respect in the blurb).
But I did get it out of the library, and I’m glad I read it. Not because it was different from what I thought, but it was interesting to read about “my” category from the outside.

At the library anyway, it’s sometimes hard to find diverse categories in each genre. It’s great that library customers can request books that are not in their current stock, and so I do. 

I think the book market for English books is the biggest in the UK and the US and it’s also sometimes hard to find authors who base their book setting outside that (for contemporary works), but I also love reading stories with blended cultures or immigrant families. 

Right now I am reading a book that includes a romance between a Jewish young man and a Muslim young woman. The most interesting part of the book so far is not actually their romance, it’s the subtle gaslighting about the racism around them that leaves them speechless and bamboozled. The Sales pitch that people in power give them about why they want particular laws in their area and why it’s not racism, is truly scary. And it’s scary because it happens.

Also the Jewish boy’s family are legit scared of Nazi’s coming after them. It’s like a punch in the guts more than any newspaper article. This is reality. In 2021 people are still afraid because of their religion, sex, sexual preferences, skin colour, ethnic group, culture, because they are different.

Sometimes stories are more effective at conveying gravity and truth than simply a factual retelling. And that is why we write, we want to pierce hearts and make it a better place.

blog, writing

Blogging Block 2021

Lauryn

Hello friends.

My friends at the Writer’s Hexagon have inspired me to work on my blogging, because as you know, it needs help!

We are talking about finding time to write and routines. I had this thought, well we found 10 mins of interrupted time today to write a prompt together, so surely we could find 10-15 mins to have a quick break and write something every day?

It’s taken me a long time, but right now I feel like I have a good writing routine that works for me. Somehow I’m still stuck on blogging. Really stuck. I want to do it, I like blogs, but my direction is muddling me. Like as soon as I opened this document and titled it “Blogs 2021” the idea that I had for the first blog post, which actually seemed pretty good, completely disappeared from my brain. Did I write it down? Of course not! So here I am now, writing about not knowing what to write about!

Maybe some of you guys might feel that way about writing, or about another project. Being stuck is very unmotivating!

But, my personal challenge for this month is to spend 10-15 mins a day writing a short barely edited blog post to put on my website. I know I didn’t begin at the start of the month, but we all need to start somewhere, and I’m ready to begin, I’m committed. So here I am writing about not knowing how to do this. I guess it is like what many writing sages say, the first part is showing up.

With Nanowrimo I found that the first week was a big effort to get my word count in, and then generally it was a bit easier. I am hoping it is the same for this.

But I’m here, and this is one down out of 25.

And guess what? Halfway through writing this, I remembered what I originally wanted to write about! But you guys will have to wait until tomorrow for that 🙂

Okay challenge, I feel like you are about to change my life.

x L

blog

I am with you

Lauryn

What’s on my mind? You are. All you friends in lock down and isolation. All you friends in risk categories or who have people close to you in those categories.
When we travelled so many of you shared such a huge concern for Australia suffering through the bushfires, and now our eyes have turned to you.
If only we could knit a jumper for your koalas and that would show we care!
But from the stories you share the struggle is not about physical lack it’s emotional, mood, boredom, hopelessness, uncertainty, lack of routine and social isolation.
My friends how can we help you?
Obviously we pray.
What else can we do?
Follow the advice of our health warnings, at the very least to honour your situation.
What else?
Help our neighbours since we cannot physically help you.
But in this online age, surely there is something we can do to add to the constructiveness, creativity, connection and community.
So this is what I can do. I can make things and share them online. I can write stories, I can read, I can make a video about my everyday life, I can draw colouring in pictures for kids or adults to print at home, so…
Friends, tell me what you think would encourage you and let me know.
We are with you. Xxxx

PS. I am working hard on making some things available to you, stay tuned!