So much writing, so little time

My masters graduation is over and I’m feeling a little reflective. Looking at the past year fills me with amazement and gratitude. Brilliant things have happened and keep presenting themselves to me. I keep saying yes. I’ve made a plan of some of the things I’d like to write. I miss the structure of classes and assignment deadlines, so I’ve had to set a few for myself. This is the hard part of being a writer. For me, anyway.

I’m great at generating ideas. I have email inboxes, texts threads to myself and notebooks stuffed to the gunnels with weird and wonderful ideas. Taking one of those ideas and making myself sit down to finish it, well, that’s where I struggle. My work style is chaotic. I bounce from task to task, becoming bored very easily and doing bits of things. My writing practice is the same. I’ll draft a poem, then leave it for a while and edit a short story. Then I’ll start another poem, after scribbling down several more collection ideas.

I wanted to have something that kept me writing. I am beginning to submit work seriously now, and I’m finding that I don’t have enough of a quality that I am happy with to send out. I need a stockpile of varied themes. I decided to start a little project that would mean that I am writing every day, but without the pressure of having to finish (yet). It may become a collection one day.

I purchased my first ever digital bus pass. I’m still amazed by technology. It has a QR code on an app that you scan on the bus. I was rather taken by this leap in progress. Possibly to stop people faking tickets, there is a flashy bit underneath that switches from the current time (how does it know?!) and a random four letter word. The word changes each day. Boom! Light-bulb moment.

I could write a poem every day inspired by the word on my bus pass. So, I have been doing exactly that. Most of them so far are rubbish, but I am writing every day. I have a couple of belters that I want to take time to polish up. That’s the whole point. I’m going to do it every day for a year and see what I come up with. The project has a working title of Bus Pass Poems.

I’ve posted a couple here, that are a bit silly and aren’t very good, but you’ll get the idea. Most journals and publishers won’t take anything that has been published previously, including self published on your own website, so you’ll just have to wait until I get an acceptance from one of my (many) submissions. I’m not willing to post anything I might want to refine and send.

 

Mole

Blink blink squint

I feel like a mole

When the lights go on

I emerge from the dark

 

Surf

I used to be a surfy dude

But never on the waves

Sofa surfing year on year

Dodging early graves

 

Carp

The woman carped on

The carp swam in the pond

This poem is crap

 

I’m working on a number of submissions at the moment and I’ve missed more deadlines than I’ve made. I’m still working with my women’s writing group, which I absolutely adore. I need to finish The Boy’s book as well. So much writing to do, so little time. I’m also considering a PhD.

Yes, I am completely mad. Don’t tell me you didn’t know…