Noticing Nuances ~ Valerie Ronald

 

I keep this poem in my writing files to remind me to look for the nuances, subtle shades and depths in the commonplace with potential to blossom into inspiration.
 

Valentine for Ernest Mann       by Naomi Shihah Nye

You can’t order a poem like you order a taco.

Walk up to the counter, say, “I’ll take two”

And expect it to be handed back to you

on a shiny plate.

Still, I like your spirit.

Anyone who says, “Here’s my address,

write me a poem,” deserves something in reply.

So I’ll tell you a secret instead:

poems hide.    In the bottoms of our shoes,

they are sleeping.    They are the shadows

drifting across our ceilings the moment

before we wake up.    What we have to do

is live in a way that lets us find them.

Once I knew a man who gave his wife

two skunks for a valentine.

He couldn’t understand why she was crying.

“I thought they had such beautiful eyes,”

And he was serious.    He was a serious man

who lived in a serious way.    Nothing was ugly

just because the world said so. He really

liked those skunks.   So, he re-invented them

as valentines and they became beautiful.

At least, to him.    And the poems that had been

    hiding

in the eyes of skunks for centuries

crawled out and curled up at his feet.

Maybe if we re-invent whatever our lives give us

we find poems.    Check your garage, the odd

    sock

in your drawer, the person you almost like, but

not quite.

And let me know.

   ***
I think this poem is telling us something we all know as writers. Our readers may think writing ideas come from the fascinating and adventurous lives of writers but few of us lead such lives. The truth is, we as writers have a certain way of looking at the world around and within us, seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary ˗˗ a story behind the mundane. As the poem says, what we have to do is live in a way that lets us find them. By looking for subtle nuances in small, everyday circumstances and scenarios we find ideas to fill volumes.

What this poem doesn’t tell us is that as writers who are Christians, we have a Divine Inspirer. God is the Master Creator. Everything in this vast universe came from His infinite mind and hand. Being made in His image, we have a small share in that creativity. We have unlimited resources for writing ideas everywhere we look, but how we look is inspired by our heavenly Father.

I will give you hidden treasures and wealth tucked away in secret places; I will reveal them to you. Then you will know that I am the Eternal, the God of Israel, who calls you by name. (Isa. 45:3 The Voice)  

I have found that going to the Revealer, asking Him to make known what He would have me write, eventually results in what I call a shining moment ˗˗ that moment when I see something in a new way, when the seed of an idea blooms suddenly in my mind and I can’t wait to develop it in writing. He never fails me.

Writing is a shy craft. Ideas flit through our heads at the oddest moments, in the strangest places, waking us from a sound sleep in the middle of the night, requiring a notebook close by for us to capture random inspirations for possible writing projects. That surge of adrenaline when an idea hits is God speaking, telling us, “Here! I am revealing to you the wealth tucked away in secret places! Be aware of the nuances here, with subtle shades of meaning and depth. Write it down and use it well, My child.”

Keep looking for the poems hiding in the eyes of skunks, waiting to curl up at your feet. 

    

Valerie Ronald writes from an old roll top desk in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, with her tortoiseshell cat for a muse. A graduate of Langara College School of Journalism, she writes devotionals, fiction and inspirational prose. Her purpose in writing is to encourage others to grow in their spiritual walk.

 

I is for Idea Generators by Susan Barclay

 

I is not the easiest letter to work with as a blog prompt, so when you’re awake at 2 in the morning, struggling to sleep, the mind works. It generates ideas. (See what I did there? This month’s topic is idea generators!)

As writers sometimes the hardest part is getting started. We can certainly ask the Lord what He wants us to write about and expect Him to answer, yet when He seems silent and we want to keep writing while we wait on Him, we can turn to other sources to ignite our brains, our pens, our fingers on the keyboard.

Search the term ‘writing idea generator’ or ‘creative writing prompts’ on the Internet and you’ll get plenty of hits, including this one where you can also submit your completed story. Some sites require you to sign up or pay for premium service, so it’s worth exploring to find the site that best suits your needs.

Of course, you don’t need to turn to the Internet for ideas, even as You wait on divine direction. Here are a few other potentially stimulating exercises:

1. Go to your favourite people-watching place. Listen and watch. Ask yourself questions about the people you see and the lives they live. As you catch snippets of conversations, consider what might be said next, what might happen next in their stories. Ask ‘what if’ questions: what if the single mom on whom the family income depends breaks her ankle? What if the irritable man has just learned that his family won’t be able to join him in Canada as soon as he’d expected? What if the boy who is clinging to his mother is being bullied at school? Make notes. If you’re anything like me, you’ll forget your best ideas if they’re not written down.

2. Take a walk in your neighbourhood or nearby natural area. Take your camera or use your phone to take pictures. At home or sitting on a park bench, look through your photos and use the ones that speak to you as prompts for a poem, short story, or other piece of work.

3. Write something that offers immediate gratification: a poem, a piece of flash fiction, one perfect sentence, a devotional, a short short story, a journal entry, a monologue. See if any of it can be fleshed out into something more lengthy or if it generates yet another writing idea.

4. Copy the work of an author whose style you admire. Write out the opening page or pages of a favourite novel or work of non-fiction. What is it that you like? Try to capture the tone in a piece of your own.

5. All real writers read. If you’ve sought the Lord, tried the above exercises, and are still struggling to write something that excites you, read for the sheer pleasure of reading. Reading is good for the mind. Reading is relaxing, refreshing, and restorative. It’s good for the soul. And as Jim Rohn is quoted as saying, “Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.”

If this post inspired you and gave you some ideas, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

 

___________________

For more about Susan Barclay and her writing, please visit www.susan-barclay.blogspot.com.

Fresh as the New Driven Snow by Steph Beth Nickel

Oh, no . . . wait! That was yesterday. Thankfully, the temperature was high enough to get rid of the snow that fell, an early April Fool’s joke. The trees did look beautiful with the clean white stuff clinging to their branches, but like most people, I am glad to see the signs of spring.

Autumn has been my favourite season as long as I can remember. I love the sights, the sounds, and the smells. It wasn’t until my hubby started keeping me posted on the development of the buds on the trees that I even really noticed spring. And now the crocuses, the tulips, the robins, and yes, the buds touch my heart with their promise of new life.

And with spring comes Camp NaNoWriMo. Many of you may be familiar with the original version of NaNoWriMo that runs in the fall. Thousands of writers sign up with the aim of writing the first draft of a novel, at least the first 50,000 words, in a single month.

While I have never signed up in the fall, I have “attended” camp a couple of times and am doing so again this month. The nice thing is that we can set our own word count goal and our own projects plural. (In fact, this post is counting toward my goal. Hooray!) My personal goal is to write at least 30,000 words this month. That shouldn’t be a problem with my eclectic interests and endeavours.

And that’s how I keep my writing fresh: I write several short pieces on a wide variety of topics.

Let me take a moment to say kudos to all of you who invest the time and energy to draft, write, and rewrite (numerous times) full-length books. I am somewhat in awe of you. While I did coauthor Deb Willows’ memoir, Living Beyond My Circumstances, it was more about getting to know her and her family and relaying stories from her life that she wanted to share with readers. I’m all about relationships, so this didn’t seem quite the same as holing up for months on end to write—and rewrite—a single book.

I have what I call the Butterfly Syndrome. I love to flit from one thing to the next to the next. This is why I overcommit at times. So many different things catch my attention. Some of you may be able to relate to sayings like “Oo . . . pretty” and “Squirrel!”

Unless ideas are bouncing around in my head like a pinball, I feel lethargic. I have to focus my endeavours—or nothing gets finished—but I can’t rein in my thoughts completely or it’s like someone has turned off the tap and left my lazy, listless self sitting in my chair—or on the couch in front of the TV—for hours on end.

So when I was asked to guest post on my fellow writers’ blogs and when Ron Hughes of HopeStreamRadio approached me about being a contributor, I was over the moon. Coming up with new content regularly means my ideas and my writing must stay fresh.

When writing devotionals for HSR, I dig into God’s Word. I’ve found, once again, how amazing it is to find new insights in passages I’ve read dozens—maybe hundreds—of times before. It truly is the Living Word.

And when I’m writing blog posts, I often follow the advice of a visiting missionary who spoke at our church years ago. When asked to speak, he considered what the Lord had been teaching him at the time. He most often used that as the springboard for his message. When I approach a new post, I look to what has been going on in my life. I often find the inspiration I need to get started from my day-to-day life and go from there.

Keep a lookout. Fresh ideas and inspiration are all around, just like the signs of spring.