Haiku: getting creative

Hey again folks, I thought I would let you see some of the haiku that I have been writing as part of my course in Creative Writing.  I have been trying to do at least one per day on totally random subjects that happen to come into my consciousness so they are a little strange at times.

Sorry the posts haven’t been as frequent as they have been in the past but I am battling with new medications and for some reason my brain won’t allow me to sleep at all lately so I am suffering all of the side effects that go along with that as well.  A big thank you has to go to my wife and the kids though as I can imagine I am a complete nightmare when I am tired, run down, ill and grouchy.  I love you girls loads and thanks for putting up with Mr. Grumpy-chops!

The time I have been wide awake has been spent reading loads of books on loads of different subjects and in loads of different styles and genres.  It has made me realise just how far I still have to go to be able to write as effectively as I would like to be able to.  It has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience so far though and I will try and share what I can with you lovely folks when I get the chance.

So here we go with a selection of haiku written by yours truly (oh,  a Haiku is a 3 line piece of prose that has  a 5 syllable, 7 syllable, 5 syllable line structure):

(Haiku)
俳句

(A rainstorm)

Swirling, Twirling Round

A fresh wind blows through my mind

Rain pours down ideas

(Break time)

Hot, Steamy, Milky

Sugar sweetens up the brew

Crossword time at last

(Cheesecakes)

Sharp, Fruit filled

Buttery biscuit bases

Creamy Goodness, Yum!

(Daughter playing Minecraft)

Clicking, Tapping fast

Block after Block building more

Will the game end soon?

(Werewolf film on tv)

Pitch black, moonlight skies

Changing, morphing, quite close now

Screams pierce cold night air

Books, Books, Everywhere

So many things I must read

Shh! Quiet time please!

 

Granted they aren’t anything spectacular or anything particularly deep and meaningful but it has helped me to look at things around me in a totally different light and it has definitely made a difference to the pieces I have been playing around with.

What I would love for you folks to do though is give me 3 completely random words or phrases that you would like me to write a short piece about.   I will try to write a nice short descriptive piece about the story it formulates in my mind and then I will post it up here on my blog.  If you really like the sound of it I can then look at trying to expand it into a longer story and see what comes out of it all.

So if you fancy having a go leave a reply for me with your three words and I will try and get something back up here withing a couple of days or so.

Let’s get creative together!

Until next time folks, Stay Safe and Keep Smiling

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Creativity Journal

I am going to let you in on what I have been doing for the past couple of months that has kept me away from the blog in the past couple of months.  I have been keeping a creativity journal which means I am  writing every single day on a wide variety of subjects.

I am studying creative writing at the moment through university and I have been having a blast with it.   One of the things my course asks me to do is keep a writers journal.  A writers journal is a book of observations, ideas, random quotes and pretty much anything else that has interested me or has popped into my head for some reason.  It is a good exercise to get the creative juices flowing and it is also very therapeutic to empty my head of all of the things I would bottle up inside and obsess about for ages.

Ideas, Sharing and Blogging

So that got me thinking about my blog and what I could do to tie in both the things I have spoken about before and the creativity journal that I am keeping each day.  I thought I could share some of the things that I have been writing each day and let you tell me whether you like/dislike them and it also may give me an idea to try and write some short stories or hopefully a novel!

I also thought about having a day where I will take suggestions from you folks of 3 different objects or ideas and then I will write them into some kind of short story.  I reckon this would be a good challenge and it would get me into a good habit of writing and would also let me give you guys something that I have created just for you! I could try and use the few photography tips that I have been given to try and take some photos that tie in with the story that I have written as well.

Another idea buzzing around my head is to do a photography scavenger hunt, for those of you that blog, so we can share photos about our local areas and link up to promote each other.  I think it could be great fun and I hope you guys are on board with it as I would love to see some of the places that you visit in your local area.

Sunset over mountains taken from the plane

This doesn’t mean that I am going to be changing the blog completely to talk  about different subjects though, I am just hoping to include you all in some of the things that I like to do to relax when the pressure of my own pain and Pretzel’s disability get on top of me.

So what do you reckon?  Are you guys up for putting your toes into the pool of creativity with me and coming on a journey?  I hope so and I reckon we could have a good laugh along the way as well.

Until next time folks,  Stay Safe and Keep Smiling!

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Update on my whereabouts

Hey folks,  I just wanted to apologise for the lack of activity on the site for the past few weeks and I want to give you an update as to what has been going on in my life at the moment.

Firstly, I have not been very well and the pain side of things has been kicking my backside of late.  This had led the doctors to change my medication but to do that they have to reduce the one I am on before swapping across to the new one which is more powerful.  Lots of pain ridden days have been the ‘norm’ for me but thankfully it wont be for too much longer.

The second things is that I have been busy with some creative writing for my Open University course and also a Photography module (I am off there this morning) which will hopefully add some variation and depth to what I have been posting about on this site.  I am really enjoying the creative process and hopefully the things that I do will be interesting for you guys to look at and read as well.

Finally we had an update about Pretzel which knocked us for six a little bit so I will definitely be posting about that in the upcoming weeks when I can get my head around how it makes me feel and what it means for the future with us as well.  I hope that you can bear with me because I am planning on some big changes with the blog and also the layout/design (if I have the time to do it).  I do appreciate all of the support I have had through this blog and I don’t plan on abandoning it  anytime soon so please do stick around to see what happens.

So for now I will be busy writing and snapping away to make some (hopefully) cool and nice things for you all to see very soon.

Until then stay safe and keep smiling!

New ideas and a fresh outlook….

Hey folks, I am back with a new outlook for the week, the year and for my whole life!  In fact this post is going to be the first of many that I will be linking up with another blogger called Melissa over at The Bright Side blog.  She hosts a series called LML (Love my Life) on a Monday and you can read about it here.

First I want to say sorry for the lack of posts last week but things have been absolutely manic for us with the kids being on their school holidays.  Pretzel decided she would scream at us all day, every day because she has been taken out of her routine, Manga has been getting bored because she has had nothing to do and my sleeping and pain have been giving me a right battering as well.  All of this together does not add up to a happy, energetic Keith!

 Time for a new beginning

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. -George Bernard Shaw

 This quote from George Bernard Shaw is one that I will look to for inspiration in the future when I am feeling stuck in a rut or when I need to try something new in order to change the direction in which my life is heading.  Too many times in my life I have talked about finding out who I am and what I want and I have even written about it on this blog.  Then I was reading a book that I bought recently that had this quote in it and it made me rethink the strategy I was using to try and change my life for the better.  Instead of looking backwards at the things that I used to dream about and where I wanted to be when I was younger, I have decided to take a different standpoint now and create a ‘new’ me.

You will never win if you never begin. -Helen Rowland

There isn’t just a new beginning for me at this moment in time though, my whole family is starting new things this month.  Pretzel will be getting a new one-to-one worker who will be taking her out on small trips during the week to give us a little bit more free time to do things for ourselves.  This is something we have been looking forward to for a while now because it means we can spend a little more time and attention on Manga and also gives us a chance to spend a little time with each other.  We may even get chance to have a regular ‘date night’!

Manga is starting secondary school in the next couple of days as well which she is so excited about.  She absolutely loves school and hates the fact that she has to have school holidays, especially when they are as long as this one in the summer.  We are so proud of her because she got her results back from her SAT tests and she aced all of them, even getting a grade for Maths so high that they don’t normally hand it out! A new school for her is an exciting prospect, but I have to admit it is a double edged sword for me because my little girl is growing up and it is hard to ‘let go’ of my little girl and embrace the young woman who is now in my life.  I think it is especially as the difference between her development and Pretzel’s development is so markedly different.  It is hard not to compare each of my daughters with each other but it is something I am going to have to learn to adjust and adapt to.

Jaffa is starting 6th form college in a couple of weeks to study Information Technology, Child Development and Health Studies.  She has said that she wants to work with children like Pretzel and I think she will be fantastic at it as well.  She dotes on her little sister when she comes to visit and she has a very calm way of dealing with things.  She also got fantastic results with her GCSE exams and had some very high marks as well.  It must be something in the water that is making them all so smart!

And now we move on to myself and Zanna.  We have got some new courses that we are going to be taking to give ourselves a break away from the house and, hopefully, might lead to some new and exciting things for us.  We are both starting a photography course which is something we have wanted to do for a while.  We often see other families with beautiful photographs of places that they have visited but we always end up with blurred, fuzzy pictures.  The plan is to do this course and then go crazy taking pictures of anything and everything so we can start using them for this blog and other things we are planning for the future.  After we have finished that course we are going to be going on a creative writing short course so that we can learn more about how to create stories and characters.  We are planning to write some books for children and possibly even a series of books giving information about life as a parent of a SWAN child with an undiagnosed genetic condition.  On top of that I am continuing my studies with the Open University and I have changed my degree to study creative writing as well.  It is something that has become my passion and, as well as writing this blog, has taken up the majority of my time over the past few months.  I am busy working on some ideas for some short stories, poetry and I am also looking into doing more research on an idea that I have for a non-fiction book as well.  I have decided that I will write under a pen name though as I don’t want to influence people about myself, my family or my friends when they read anything that I write.  I may decide at a later date that I want to reveal what my pen name is but for the meantime I will be keeping it under wraps.

So there you have it, those are our new ideas and our fresh outlook to the remainder of this year and beyond but I want to know what you have planned for the rest of the year and beyond as well.  Are you starting any new projects? Have you decided to have a new outlook on life?  What is motivating you to go forward into the winter months?  Drop me a message in the comment section and let me know.

So until next time folks, Stay Safe and Keep Smiling!

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50 shades of something different! *Raunchy*

Hey again folks and welcome to another Wordsmith Wednesday and I thought I would share something I found by a writer called Jack Daniel Hunter.  It is based on a reading of 50 Shades of Grey but takes it in a different direction and I thought it was quite funny so I decided it had to be shared with you folks.  I do warn you though it is a bit raunchy and racy so if you don’t like that sort of thing then please be aware that you probably wont like it.   There is nothing graphic in there but I thought a fair warning was in order just in case.  So without further ado here we go with 50 Shades of Something Different:

The bead of sweat made it’s way from her brow, down her neck and ran across her bosom before disappearing out of view in her cleavage.  The heat had been steadily rising as she had been furiously grinding away. Her backside was numb from working so hard and her arms were beginning to tire.  She couldn’t remember how long it had been since she had worked so hard and enjoyed it so much.  The craving to do it had been there for some time and she had held off for as long as she could before the urges just got too much and she had to submit to it. 

She had been at it now for hours and still had no desire to stop.  The feeling was just too good and she knew that she would enjoy it even more later on.   Her breathing was heavy now and the light headed feeling had started to cloud her mind.  Her vision blurred slightly as she pushed even harder and faster than ever before.  Her pace was furious now and her face contorted as she made one final effort to finish. Almost……Almost……..The release was like an explosion tearing through her body.  She screamed out as she pushed the pedals round with one last Herculean effort, surging over the finish line to win the 55 kilometre cycling road race.

I know it is a short little piece but I thought it was clever in how it was written and I thought it might be a bit of fun to try and get some of you folks to try your hand at it as well.   I might have a go and post some of the contributions I get up for next Wednesday’s posting.  What you will need to do is pick a fairly mundane task or activity and try to rewrite it in a raunchy kind of way but don’t give away just what it is until you reach the very end of the piece.  Let’s see if we can have some fun and get creative at the same time!

That is your challenge should you choose to accept it.  If you do take part let me know on Twitter @nosleepintoon or through Facebook on my Fan Page

Until Next time folks, Stay Safe and Keep Smiling!

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Wordsmith Wednesday

 

The Special Child

 

The churning stomach, the racing heart,

The step into the unknown,

A new life, a new beginning,

Just waiting to be grown.

 

Something changes, something’s wrong,

Why is there no sound?

That deep purple, that awful stillness,

The worried looks get thrown around.

 

My little girl, my darling child,

Why are you there so still?

Just one breath, one little cry,

Just show that fighting will.

 

That gasp of breath, that piercing cry,

You fought and you have won,

You beat the odds, you fought the fight,

But the tale is not quite done.

 

Then came the fits, the jerky limbs,

Why were these movements so?

Then came the tests, The results were slow,

And yet still we do not know.

 

My baby girl, my darling child,

My special little SWAN,

A confusing world, A different life,

But still you soldier on.

 

You are my gift, my reminding note,

Of how precious life can be,

I love you lots, my bonny bairn,

More than you could ever see.

 

Do not feel pity, Do not feel woe,

For her life is filled with joy,

Her smiles are many, Her laughs are loud,

As she plays with all her toys.

 

So from this tale, this little ode,

Don’t think we cannot cope,

The trek is hard, the journey long,

But it’s one that’s filled with hope.

This is the first piece of poetry that I have written in a very long time, so I hope it isn’t too far away from the mark.  I drew my inspiration for this from the birth of my daughter Pretzel, who has an Undiagnosed Genetic Condition or, as it is otherwise known, a Syndrome Without A Name (SWAN).  It can be difficult going taking care of her as I have already said in many different posts on this blog but as a family we always manage to get through the difficulties by keeping a sense of hope.  Our hope is that one day Pretzel may just surprise us and learn a single word or be able to use a piece of software to communicate with us.

I would love for you to share some pieces of poetry, prose or passages from your favourite piece of work for Wordsmith Wednesdays and I would especially love for the writers among you to share pieces of your own original works with some of those readers who may not know about them.  So join in and show us all just how talented you all are…….I DARE YOU!

Until next time folks, Stay safe and keep smiling!

 

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Motivational Monday

Motivational Monday is the first of the theme posts that I mentioned I was going to start doing with this blog and I am so excited to be starting this new way of blogging for me.  I hope you will enjoy the new theme posts that I have selected but if you would like to see a new one or have any suggestions about the site you can either drop me a line using my comment form or send an e-mail to sleeplessinnewcastle@keithaddison.co.uk  So far we have Motivational Monday, Wordsmith Wednesday and Feel Good Friday, if you want to suggest any others please feel free to do so.  Time for our first installment of:

You cannot plough a field by
turning it over in your mind.

I have been guilty of doing this myself for such a long time and it is something that I can look at and draw inspiration from each time that I read it.  I spent such a long time in my caring role that I lost sight of what I wanted to do with my life and what I wanted to achieve.  There were so many things that I would ‘think’ about doing and plan out in my head, but when it came to actually doing them there was always some excuse as to why I couldn’t or shouldn’t go ahead with it.  I was also being a little hypocritical with it as well because I would always say to my kids that they should do things that make them happy and that they should reach for the moon because there was nothing in this world that should hold them back or stop them from achieving whatever they wanted to do.  I say this especially as their younger sister, Pretzel, won’t have a lot of these opportunities because of her special needs.

Since then I have now changed my hypocritical ways and I have started to do a lot more things instead of thinking about them.  For example I am now signed up to study on a couple of short courses to help out with my blog.  I will be starting a course in Photography in September which will help me to take some decent photographs to share with you folks instead of using stock ones all of the time.  Let’s face it, I am sure photos of things in my life are more interesting than seeing the same old stock images all of the time.  I am also signed up to do a short creative writing course in February next year which will hopefully help me to look at the things that I write and the way that I write to improve the blog but to also help me in some of the creative writing that I am starting to look at doing outside of this blog.

I have been so much happier now that I feel things are moving forward and I have set out a plan to follow but it has been even more satisfying to realise that I am now following this plan instead of just ‘wishing’ it would come about.  After all you don’t get anywhere without taking action on all of those plans you make. What plans have you made that you may be putting off?  Should you be taking action instead of planning everything and waiting for it to come true?  Take this chance to make at least one positive change this week and maybe do something you have been planning to get around to for some time.

I hope that you have enjoyed this first installment of Motivational Monday and until next time Stay Safe and keep smiling!

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New Theme and Exciting times ahead!

New theme topics and exciting times!

Hey folks, I haven’t posted for a couple of days as I haven’t been too well.  I have been loaded with cold and with the kids away from school on their summer holidays it has been pretty hectic.  I have still been thinking about you all and how to improve this lovely little blog for you so we can do some pretty nice and hopefully exciting things together to take this blog forward.  I noticed there are quite a few bloggers out there who have theme posts for their blogs which happen on regular days throughout the week and I really like this idea.  It will give me a little bit more of a focus with what to write if I am looking at a theme as I don’t want to leave large gaps between posts and I want to keep it interesting for you folks to read.  I want to show everyone that there are a lot of things  in my life that keep me going and give me hope which I think have been slightly skipped over to fill you all in on my background story in the past 3-4 weeks so I have decided that my first theme post day will be called ‘Motivational Mondays’.

Motivational Mondays

For ‘Motivational Mondays’ I am planning to write posts about things that have got me excited for the upcoming week.  This could be something I have read, something that is in the news or something that has happened or is going to happen in my life in the upcoming week.  I figured it would be a nice way for us to cheer up Monday mornings a little bit as it can be so depressing thinking about going back to work or some of the more dull and dreary tasks we all have to do during the week.  I am hoping that I may be able to get some guest posters involved as well because I have read some fantastic posts from some really lovely people in the past month of the Ultimate Blog Challenge.

Wordsmith Wednesday

The second theme post day is going to be ‘Wordsmith Wednesday’.  For ‘Wordsmith Wednesday’ I am planning on having quotes, poetry, short stories, limericks, haiku etc.  basically anything that uses words as it’s focus.  This is where I am hopefully going to be able to share with you some of the creative writing that I have been doing and I also hope that you will be willing to share your creative writing with me.  Again I will be looking at getting guest posters involved as I have read a lot of really good things from some very talented writers over the past couple of months and I would love to be able to share them with everyone.

Feel Good Friday

Finally the last theme post of the week will be ‘Feel Good Fridays’.  ‘Feel Good Fridays’ will be a look back at the previous week to see what has happened that has made me smile, laugh, feel proud or anything along those lines.  It could be anything at all that has happened whether it be a joke I have heard, a story I have read, a video I have seen or maybe a photograph that has made me smile.  Again I hope that you will join in and share something from your week that has made you smile or feel good from the past week.  You never know, yours may just make someone else smile!

I am hoping that these theme posts will give us something really interesting to share with each other and they may evolve into something else or they might disappear in favour of another theme that we find as we go along.  As always your suggestions will be very important to me and if you feel you don’t like something or would like a different theme then please feel free to suggest it to me.  I am also going to try out some videoblogs for you guys to see how well they work and whether you can stand seeing my ugly mug filling your screen!  I did have some ideas about audio blogs maybe reading out some pieces of poetry or a weekly episodic reading of a piece of fictional writing.  I wasn’t too sure how much you folks would want this though so please let me know if it is something you would be interested in hearing as it is an idea I was quite keen on trying out.

I am going to be trying to have a fiddle around with the layout of the blog throughout the next few months as well to see if I can improve things or if there is a more suitable WordPress theme for this blog because as much as this theme I have now is O.k, it still doesn’t quite feel like ‘Home’ for Sleepless In Newcastle just yet.  I am no expert in any kind of theme design, graphics or web design so it is taking me time to pick up on how it all works but I hope by the end of it we can have a nice place to come and relax which feels a little more comfortable for us all.

Well there you go, those are the plans, that is the focus of the next few weeks for me for now but I really want to know what you think.  Do you like the theme ideas?  Do you have any better theme ideas?  Are you as excited to read/see/hear these different theme ideas as I am to get them up and running?

Until next time Stay Safe and Keep Smiling!