The Love of Writing
So much has changed on WordPress. I feel like a newbie once again. However, in an ever increasing bloggershere where new people are joining by the minute, I am certainly not alone.
My love of writing has always continued. Mostly in my journals and story writing, and just like water, will always find its instinctive path to run or a river a natural path in which to flow somehow I eventually find my way back to blogging.
I received a surprise gift just before Christmas from a friend who clearly knew how much I liked writing. It was a journal that provided 300 prompts for writing, Prompts are a brilliant way to inspire you and ignite your creative side, especially when inspiration may feel somewhat thin on the ground. It’s definitely something I may use in future posts, but today, I think I will just focus on the love of writing and different forms of writing.
One of the things I plan to do is to write a book this year. The dream or desire to write a book has been with me for over 3 years now , and it certainly has not faded or gone away. I have a couple of people in my life who have now self-published, and the thing that intrigues me the most is the process they took in writing their actual books.
1. They blocked time out of their diaries to dedicate to writing only
2. They were disciplined in their writing routine
3. Their focus and only priority was writing
4. They had clear goals I.e. To write a chapter or to just write
5. They were inspired before they blocked out their diaries. They knew what they were going to write about.
6. They did not entertain distracts, social media, phone calls, etc
7. For some it meant going away for others they were able work at home.
I think inspiration is the best fuel. I got an idea for one of my books around 10 pm. at night, and I literally sat up for the rest of the night just writing, by the morning I had written more than half of the book!
I am very inspired about writing and what’s ahead of me, and I am definitely willing to expand my creative side.
If you have written a book and had it published I would love to hear a bit about your approach to writing it and how you found the process of getting it published?
Until my next post. Be the change you want to see.
Gloria
Make Sure To Give Flowers
Its late in the evening and I am simply enjoying a quiet night whilst looking at a beautiful bunch of roses I received as a gift yesterday from my son and his girlfriend who visited me for the New Year.
They are gone now but the roses are still with me.
My grandmother always said that flowers were for the living, hence she did not want lots of money spent on flowers for her funeral. Its a saying that has always stayed with me because I believe it to be true.
Flowers are a beautiful way to say so many things, ‘I love you’,’ thank you’, ‘you are special’, ‘you’re worth a lot to me. ‘ Just letting you know I thought of you today.’
A simple gift doesn’t have to be flowers, but whatever is a nice way to let that person know they are special.
Flowers are tangible, for a while they will need my attention to change the water and remove a dying leaves etc., and if I am lucky that will last a week or more.
For me as a mum they have made my evening. I look at them and smile because I love flowers, I love colour and they remind me of the giver.
Who can you give your flowers to this week? Who needs to be told they are doing a great job at work? Or who has been there when you really need help/support? I know my post is about flowers but really all I am saying is let those you care about know it in a tangible way. Don’t assume they will know if you have never said so.
Its a New Year its never to late to do things differently. I made a decision a good while ago to start ending my phone calls to my eldest with ‘love you’ things have not always been great between us and I new I had to work at certain things to change our relationship. I am pleased to say we have the best relationship now. Parents don’t always get it right in their decision making. Especially as first time parents but there is always an opportunity to improve things, it may take sometime and effort but there is no price on the end result that reflects a change for the better.
Be the change you want to see, until the next post.
Gloria
Leaks Don’t Fix Themself!
It’s strange how questions arise amid the continuous conversational, thoughts, and ideas that race through your head throughout the day.
The above statement stuck in my mind when I was considering a leak I needed to sort out in my home after putting up with it longer than I should using that well,known and simple solution of ‘putting a bucket in place’ to catch the water.
Truth is, this cheap and easy fix could work for as long as I want it, too. However, what it will never do is:
1. Get to the heart of the problem.
2. Fix it permanently.
3. The continual reliance on the bucket.
Leaks don’t fix themself!
What tends to happen is:-
1. The leak over time gets worse.
2. It causes water damage
3. It ages, weakens, or rots the affected area
4. You may find that other areas begin to leak.
A leak never adds benefit. It always takes away and weakens.
Yet, we tick along in life with one, two, three, or more leaks in our lives because they are personal, private, not at first obvious to those around us.
Unless the leak is undeniably bad (an immediate priority/crisis), we may will try to smooth out the need to do anything because:-
1. It’s just not the best time,
2. Don’t have the money
3. Don’t know a good builder
4. Will ring someone tomorrow
I have been through all of the above in my case, and that’s right I have supported the continuation of my leak.
So, being the deeply reflective person that I am, I thought, what else am I supporting that is broken and clearly repairable in my life as I come to the end of 2023? What do I no longer want to see? What am I tierd of? Like me, you may find your list contains more than just one thing.
The idea of change may feel exciting, but without any action, it remains inert. So how are you going to change and interrupt things I your life?
Here’s to starting your New Year by leaving behind what’s old, broken, leaking or dripping. Poor spending habits, finishing things that were started with good intentions. We all know what could go in our goals list:-) But instead of having a long list – how about focusing on two things that would mean a lot to you. Two things that once completed would make you really smile.
Until my next post. Be the change you want to see.
Gloria
Writer’s Corner (6) – Add Some Drama!
Welcome to another post on my tips to new bloggers in he world of blogging. These are just helpful pointers to building and shaping your blog into how you want it to appear for your readers.
Making your page interesting is key in a world where all we do is scroll and scroll and scroll. I think scrolling is like driving. You can so easily miss key points of interests on your journey – one because your focus is ahead, therefore alot is missed as your focus is not in all the visual information around you, but mainly on what keeps you safe and what informs your direction. The majority of any other information is overlooked. Likewise, great posts can be missed simply because they have merged or blended into all the other posts because nothing has jumped out for the reader or met a specific interest. Therefore your title is the first point of contact for readers who have not built up a relationship with your blog. Therefore, like a news headline think about the titles you give your posts.
Once your post is clicked on, you then want the content to hold a person’s attention. This is not done with endless writing. So make the most of WordPress’ Add Block and add points of interests to your posts.
1. Pull Quote
The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.
Oprah Winfrey
As you can see you can also change font colours and main colours if you wish.
2. Tiled Gallery
This is great for those who love photography or you have a series of photos you would like to be viewed together. As with Pull Quote, you are given various choices within the tool to decide how you want your chosen pics to to be seen. The pics above have been used in past posts I have written and are in my library.
3. Post Carousel
Once again inside the tool you have options to on how you want the display to look and if you want it to be static and moved manually with the scroll arrows or to move automatically as above.
4. Classic
This is the original tool bar that WordPress had before launching the current block style and Add Block. If you are not a fan of this new layout and prefer the original tool set then you can access it via Add Block. It is under the Text Area and looks like a key board.
By selecting this it allows you to choose which style or layout you prefer.
Well these are my few tips for today.
Happy blogging everyone, until my next post!
Do feed back if you find The Writer’s Corner Series helpful?
Gloria (Aquene7)
Stepping2YourDreams 