Writing Exercises

I Got Skills

/ Absidity Art / 3 Comments

Today’s post asks us if we could choose to be a master of any skill in the world, which skill would be pick?

I’d pick to be a Master Painter – I can see visions in my head, I can imagine the artworks I’d like to create, but I can’t get them out the way a skilled artist can.

Maybe you’re wondering what with me always writing about wanting to improve my writing why didn’t I go down that root for my master skill fix. But no, I’m confident that with A LOT of HARD WORK I can get myself to point where I’m happy with my writing.

There is no way I’ll ever be a great artist, I don’t have any skills to work with, none whatsoever, but that’s ok I can admire the world’s finest instead.

So yes my Magic Master Skill Fix, would be to be the most awesome painter the world has ever seen mwahahahahahahahaha oh wait that would mean I’ll end up insane and an alcoholic by forty and dead by forty five. Hmmmm So maybe I’d settle to just be a really good artist instead!

365daysofprompts  Post 22/365 (missed 4)

Sweet Sixteen

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Today’s post asks us, when we were 16 what did we think our lives would look like? Does it look the way we imagined? And is that a good thing?

When I was sixteen my plan was to work till I was twenty saving enough money to get to Scotland, work there for a couple of years while exploring that part of the globe, come back and travel around Australia, then once I was about 25 go back home to the town I grew up in, open my own business and start to plan out the rest of my life.

My life to this point has been absolutely nothing like I wanted it to be, complete opposite. When I was sixteen I never intended to get married or have kids, I hated the idea of being so held down, I wanted to be free forever! I don’t feel like I get to have fun anymore and at sixteen all I was concerned with was having fun.

Sometimes I feel that my life has been a complete waste and all I’ve done is fuck one thing up after another.

Sometimes I feel like I’m being crushed by all the things I can’t do.

I feel like the real me is trapped inside. I feel like I live my life for everyone else and never for me.

And I long to have my dreams become a reality, but the older I get the less chance that they will ever come true.

I’ve always been a depressive person, all creative people are. But when I was younger I could look forward to the future, I had a plan to make myself happy and lead a fulfilling life, a plan I failed to follow through. Maybe once my sons an adult and out of the house I can stop pretending I’m a good person for his sake. I’ll probably be so angry and burnt out by that point (if I keep going the way I am) that I’ll just spend the remainder of my days stoned trying not to think about the fact I fucked up and missed my chance.

Now I Love my son and wouldn’t give him up for the world, but I wish my life leading up to him had been different. And I know I can do things to change my life and that nothing is set in stone, but having a child takes away freedom, because you always have someone else to think about. I can’t quit my job and run over seas with a kid, first up I’d get done with kidnapping for taking my son away from his father. Secondly I can’t even think about the financial insecurities of trying to change my non-existent career at this point. And third unfortunately I was raised to be responsible and compassionate so I can’t just burn everybody around me to get the things I want.

I’m getting off the point here: When I was 16 I thought my life would be filled with fun and adventure and I’d make my mark on the world. My current life doesn’t look anything like what I had imagined and wanted for myself and that’s a very bad thing because when I dwell on it (which I try not to) it makes my blood boil and my soul turn black.

365daysofprompts    Post 21/365 (missed 4)

Apply Yourself

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Apply Yourself, haha, Ok Sarah sit down and write this post, you’ve been avoiding it by doing fun Riley related posts – Commit Damn it!!!

Today’s post asks to describe our last attempt to learn something that did not come easily to us.

FAR OUT! I don’t know when to start. Nothing really has ever come easy to me ‘’education’’ wise. Truth be told, I stuffed around at school!! Never gave a rats ass or really applied myself – AND I regret It majorly now!!! I still don’t know my times tables, can’t read an analogue watch or spell very well and my grammar skills suck – But I can recite nearly all the song lyrics in my mass collection of music. I’m going to learn how to tell the time and my times tables when I have to teach those things to Riley, We’ll learn together – I Hope – NO I WILL learn them, because I won’t be able to put it off any longer, I’ll have no choice, Riley can’t think he has a dumbass for a mother.

When I left school and got a Job/Traineeship I completed three administration type TAFE certificates at TAFE. I tried harder at TAFE because it was important for my Job and I was older and cared a little bit more. Later on I attempted to do the next level, a diploma by OTEN distance education. There was a five year or so gap when I hadn’t been doing any kind of study and I just couldn’t seem to pick it back up again, not sitting in my own home, with my short attention span and it was boring.

I tried again after that to do a creative writing course by correspondence. I thought maybe enjoying the topic might make it easier, but ended up pregnant for most of it, and I never managed to complete it!

So I failed twice at long distance education, it’s not for me, I need a classroom set up to learn at my optimum.

The nuts and bolts of being a Mother I found came easy, Feed Baby, Wash Baby, Change Baby, Love Baby and Play with Baby. I read a bunch of educational pregnancy and baby books while I was pregnant, but all that really ended up doing was overwhelming me and stressing me out. As of yet haven’t been able to learn how to manage all the new shit in my life with all the old shit and that causes me quite a bit of trouble.

I am stressed trying to write this post, I’m getting angry because on this topic words do not flow easy for me, I wonder if it shows in the writing. Riley is asking for my attention by slapping the keyboard whenever I try and type, so I’m going to go play and this will have to do for the day!

365daysofprompts Post 19 of 365 (missed 4)

 

I Love the Creek of Flowers

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Free Association

Today’s Post asks us to write down the first words that come to mind when we hear – Home: Creek – Soil: Flowers – Rain: Love

It asks us to use these words in the title of our post.

So you say HOME, I say CREEK; I grew up next to Stoney Creek. Its bottoms not stoney these days, it’s all covered in muck, but my mother remembers swimming in it as a child when the water was a lot cleaner and the block of land she now lives on belonged to her grandmother. Really brave people still swim in it. My dad paddles it frequently in his kayak. Even though if it’s not in the best shape these days, it still is beautiful with some shrubbery still along its banks. I have many fond memories that where made along its banks and the sight of it resembles home in my mind nearly as much as my Mum and Dads house.

You say SOIL, I say FLOWERS; well I think the connection here is rather obvious. I love flowers and gardening, I’m not all that good at and don’t have much time or space these days for it. Whenever I’m out and about I always find myself looking at and admiring other people’s gardens. Maybe one day I’ll have a place where I can create my dream Garden.

You say RAIN, I say LOVE; I love rain! I love it when it rains. I love when it’s raining so hard at work you can’t hear anything over the roar from the tin workshop roof. I used to love it when it rained as I was walking home from school, I always walked slower when it was raining, made sure I got wet to the bone (yes my school bag was water proof, stress less) Swimming when it raining or there is a storm, I’m not quite sure that it’s very safe, but it’s awesome sensory fun. I always sleep better if it’s raining hard or there is a storm. At night I play rain and thunderstorm ambient music to help me sleep. A lot of my child hood memories of camping with my family it was raining and there was always MUD to be played in.

365daysofprompts  Post 18/365 (missed 4)

Toot Your Horn

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Today’s post presents us with “Most of us are excellent at being self-deprecating, and are not so good at the opposite. Tell us your favourite thing about yourself’’.

Self-deprecating yep that’s me.

My favourite part of myself is my overactive imagination. My overactive imagination has gotten me into all kinds of strife over the years, caused me needless stress, but always kept me entertained.

I over think everything and worry about the outcomes of things that never happen. My mind is always wondering, playing out melodramas in my head, telling me there’s demons under my bed, but always keeping me occupied. I am an only child, but never lacked for company, I was always off in my dream world and still today as an adult I quite like to shy away from company.

I had many sleepless nights as child fearing the monsters I’d made up. I can’t remember all the baddies I’d created in my head but I can remember the story I’d play in my head so I could get it to sleep at night.

I used to imagine my Cat Chum and my Dogs Astro and Cassie could turn into fearsome dinosaurs that answered only to me. Now Chum used to sleep every night on my pillow so I’d tell myself, if anything tried to harm me Chum would alert the others and the three of them would morph and protect me.

I still see demons clawing up the side of my bed to get me even now. It took me until my twenties to be able to sleep without the covers up over my head and if my husband’s not home I have to leave the hall light on.

I can lose a whole day dreaming about faraway lands and future plans. I get so caught up in my head I don’t want to return to the real word, but I like it that way, the real world stinks.

I would like to be able to turn it off at night and get some sleep.

365daysofprompts   Post 16/365 (missed 3)

 

Ripped from the headlines

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Today’s post asks us to visit our favourite online news source and pick an article with a headline that grabs you and write a short story based on it.

Now I’m going to give you the story, then I’ll tell you the headline!!!

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Rufus & Max

Rufus loved Max. Max had saved Rufus from downing when he was only a few months old. Max had been out paddling his canoe in the creek near his house when he came across a distressed little puppy trying to climb back up the bank. Max picked the wet mess of fur up and took him home, washed him, dried him and gave him a feed. Max decided to call him Rufus as he’d been watching Bill and Ted’s awesome adventure the night before and the name sprang to mind. He called up his local vet and off they went for a check-up. Rufus wasn’t microchiped, so max had him microchiped and registered him as his own. He didn’t bother looking for Rufus first owner, he figured if they didn’t bother to keep the pup safe or have him microchiped that they didn’t deserve him. The vet said that Rufus was approximately three months old and that by the looks of it he had wolfhound and kelpie in him.

Max was a rather active kind of bloke, he loved camping, fishing and hiking in the bush and so did Rufus. Rufus was convinced he had the best human in the world and that Max had been made just for him. They had many fun filled years together while max was finishing high school, then starting Uni. Max had even perceived and taught Rufus to swim.

Rufus loved it when Max got his own place and Rufus no longer had to deal with Max’s mother’s evil cats Muffin and Patsy. Muffin and Patsy where always breaking things and Rufus was always getting the blame, no matter how much Max stood up for him. But alas the pressure of having their own home was weighing Max down. Rufus could see how tired Max was getting now that he was working full time and still trying to complete his final year of study. Rufus decided he’d take matters into his own paws, Max needed to rest, he needed a break, so the next morning when Max’s alarm went off, Rufus pulled cord out of the wall with his teeth before it could make enough noise to wake Max, he then smiled to himself and trotted into the kitchen and pulled the telephone cord out just to be sure. Rufus then went and curled up on his favourite purple plush pile rug in the lounge room.

Max awoke a few hours later, he sat up with a shot upon seeing how bright the sun was outside. He looked at his clock but it was turned off, he jumped out of bed and grabbed his phone and turned it on. I think everyone within a kilometre radius would have herd the words he exclaimed when he saw what time it was. There was 10 messages on his mobile phones answering service. He listened to them grimacing as in each message his boss got angrier and angrier. He looked at his alarm clock and wondered how in the hell the power cord had been ripped from the wall, he went and checked his land line telephone and found it’s cord had been pulled out also. He was trying to figure out what had happened, he thought that maybe he had done it sleep walking perhaps.

Max looked at Rufus lying peacefully on his rug, he glanced at the time and decided that he was already in the shit at work anyway so he may as well take Rufus for a swim and some fishing, perhaps when he was fishing he’d be able to come up with some sort of excuse, he hoped.

So Rufus got what he wanted, Max had a sleep in and then they spent a relaxing day fishing and swimming in their favourite spot and Max never really figured out what had happened.

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The headline that called out to me was “Snooze Dogg turns off owner’s alarm” as it was the only remotely entertaining/ happy sounding title, all the other headlines where sad or serious and I wasn’t in the mood for that.

365daysofprompts  Post 14/365 missed 3

Clean Slate

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Today’s post asks us to explore the room we’re in as if we’re seeing it for the first time – What do we see? Who is the person who lives there?

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As I walk up to the door I can smell the scent of lavender, the kind of smoky lavender that comes from burning incense and I can see an old faded green fabric one seater lounge chair just inside the doorway. As I walk through the door I step on something hard, I look down to see a baby’s plastic rattle under my foot. There are a few baby toys strewn around the ground, obviously to keep a little someone occupied while a bigger someone is trying to use the room. The rooms one large window has its blinds drawn to the left side and the room is filled with bright sunlight. What the bigger someone would be using the room for becomes obvious once I see the big black desk under the window. Now this desk looks like it was probably an old rectangular dining table it’s so big. At the table is a computer chair. On the table is an open Laptop Computer and Tablet PC, multiple paper filing trays with bills and books, pen holders, an open daily planner, a large silver desk lamp as well as an empty oil burner and an incense holder with a extinguished incense cone in it. As I turn around to leave the room I realise there is a white built-in wardrobe that I didn’t notice as I walked in. I open the wardrobe and am immediately hit with a divine smell, I look up first and find a rather large supply of candles, incense and oils. There is also a collection of craft and painting supplies, some old work out equipment and a massive box full of aged by still in good condition Lego all stuffed in the little wardrobe.

Judging by the desk this is the home office of someone who likes a lot of space when they are working, I assume they have a baby and that the baby isn’t old enough for the Lego so it’s hidden away for once they are older. Maybe it’s ever the room’s owners Lego from when they were a kid and they intend to pass it on. They must like candles and incense and all things pretty smelling.

I look back around the room as I go to leave, It is a rather clean and tidy room, if you don’t count the few baby toys on the floor, everything on the desk is lined and grouped just so, it’s possible the owner of this room is a bit obsessive.

So the owner of this room is a slightly obsessive person, who likes space, who likes the air around them aromatised and who is a parent trying to keep their child occupied while they work.

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The room I wrote this in is my home office/ writing room.

365daysofprompts Post 13/365 missed 3

Take Two

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Today’s post asks up to run outside and take a picture of the first thing we see, then run back inside and take a picture of the second thing we see, then write about the connection between these two random objects, people, or scenes.

Ok so I didn’t run, when I run I tend to fall! But this is what I saw when I opened my front door:

outsideMy Car (and my dying front lawn) were the first things I noticed. My green Lancer wagon. My nice family friendly safe little Lancer wagon aka My G.L.W (green lancer wagon). Before I got the GLW for its baby carrying wagon benefits, I had a Commodore (aka the Bombodore). The Bombodore was actually a bigger, heavier and faster car then the GLW, but alas it was a sedan and a wagon is much easier to hall prams and things out of. The GLW uses half the fuel of the Bombodore because it’s got half the engine. I am really enjoying the ease of a wagon carting my son around, but when I’m driving ALONE I still yearn for the rear wheel drive Holden power that used to put me sideways when I’d take off too fast – ummm no I’ve never done that I swear – oh who am I kidding, I can be a typical Aussie who likes being a lead foot and a dickhead some of the time!

When I turned back around I saw my floor mat covered in dirty foot prints, making my think I needed to clean it. Second thing I saw was a display cabinet. I never realised my hall was so boring until I looked at this photo.

insideThe cabinet is full of mementos from family trips, my wedding and trinkets my husband and I have collected over the years. The things that you can probably make out in the photograph inside the display cabinet are; the number plate off of my motor scooter which I kept when I sold the bike just before my son was born and one of my Astro Boy figures, I loved Astro Boy when I was younger and when I was four I named my first dog after him. Up on top of the display cabinet is evidence that I am a Harry Potter fan as I have a Dobby stuffed toy, two white owl statues representing Hedwig and a toy cat I made representing Crookshanks. Also up on top there are two photos from my wedding.

The connection between the two things – well they’re mine for a start, It’s my car and my display cabinet, one holds a lot of memories and the other has the ability to take me to places to make new memories.

365daysofprompts   Post 12/365 missed 3

Teacher’s pet

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Today’s post prompt asks us to write about a teacher who had a real impact on our lives, either for the better or the worse and how is your life different today because of him or her?

Haha well I could talk about my mum, she is a high school art teacher, oh wait WAS, its 2014 she’s now retired. So anyways she was a teacher and she’s taught me a hell of a lot over the years – but I think the prompt probably means more along the lines of your past school teachers.

So I’ll start off saying I didn’t really have any teachers that impacted badly on my life in the long run, although I’m sure I impacted badly on some of their lives.

There are a few teaches who stand out:

Primary School. My year 6 teacher Mrs Anderson, the first teacher I ever tried to behave for, first class I actually tried to learn in. She separated me from my friends and put me down the front of the class between Nick Redman and Guy Faseas, it was probably the smartest thing anybody had ever done. I already knew Cathie Anderson (now Cathie Black) before I had her as a teacher as she was and still is friends with my parents and grandparents. She’d known me my whole life and I cared about what she thought of me, I was probably still loud and un-agreeable some of the time, but I did try to behave for her! Well in my head I did, she might tell you a different story!

High School. I walked into Toronto High School with a bit of an attitude and walked out with a rather bad and major one, BUT most of the teachers I had there had a positive effect on me, I just had to grow up to understand their lessons.

Science became one of my favorite subjects. Now I was never a very good ‘learner’ at school, WAY! to easily distracted, but in my four years at Toronto I had two super awesome science teachers Mr Morgan and Mr Delbow (that’s not how he spells it I’m sure) who made learning science easier for me because they kept me captivated. I don’t really remember getting into much trouble in science class.

I loved music class, but that’s because it was always a bludge and the only class I got straight A’s in. Art class was also one of my favorites, even though I really liked my art teacher, it was more the subject matter that held me. I Hated Math!!! No teaches fault! Just F*#king hated having to think really hard on boring numbers LOL and now I’m an office clerk who works with numbers each day, oh what a world. Numbers and I became friends after I left school. Sorry I got a bit off track there.

Last but not least Mrs Ireland my Drama teacher, I’ve mentioned her before, she could always get me to behave. Everybody respected Mrs Ireland, she was a hard teacher, but a good one. It was Mrs Island who encouraged the angry loud mouthed fifteen year old Sarah to try reading. I had read as a child, school forced you to read and some of my fondest early child hood memories are of reading with my mum and my Nanma, but somewhere along the teenage path I’d lost that love. She helped me to find my love of reading again, which has no doubt improved my writing, spelling and concentrating abilities over the years.

Ok I’ll shop boring you with my ramblings now 🙂

365daysofprompts   Post 8/365 missed 1

Helpless

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Helplessness: that dull, sick feeling of not being the one at the reins – Today’s post asks us when did you last feel like that, helpless and what did you do about it?

I laughed when I saw today’s post prompt, a bitter laugh! I think the question for me would be when do I not feel helpless. I’m going to be brutally honest here (which I think I’ll regret when I hit publish), I break down almost daily, feeling trapped, feeling like everything is out of my control, feeling that the things I want for myself are out of reach and that going on is pointless. I breakdown feeling helpless, sorry for myself and mad at myself for feeling the first two.

What am I doing about it, well to be honest I’m sick of dealing with it and I’m sick of talking about it, talking just drags it out, talk talk talk talk, talking around in circles, talking to my husband who doesn’t understand, talking to a ‘professional’ I got sent to see – talking is pointless when nobody’s listening – so I’m done with talking.

I can suffer through it. I can try to think about the things that make me happy to help the current wave of depression wash over me. Once the wave is gone I can go back to being the ME I enjoy, until helplessness, fear and anger come rolling to my shore again and I’ll suffer through them again until that wave passes also.

I think you can tell I’m under a wave while writing this, my sons been cranky this afternoon and his crying always sends me straight to the bottom. There is nothing that makes me feel more helpless than his cries, it really is amazing how you can love something so much but have it cause you so much anguish.

But I will say I am thankful for the life I have, things could be much worse, but unfortunately that doesn’t stop the waves crashing over me.

365daysofprompts   Post 7/365 missed 1