Monday, January 07, 2008

Red...

I received a lovely poem yesterday by email which featured a little bird and homesickness that cheered me up no end. I'm feeling really settled here now, I've even been off the center - there's a sign at the end of the property which says 'The Real World' which I must get a picture of before I go, but for now, here's the cardinal - the state bird of Virginia, and which I caught perching just outside my studio window.



It feels a happy coincidence that it matches exactly the colour of my new page-a-day Moleskine diary.



I'm doing this year what I did about three years ago - I've written a prompt at the top of each page right up until 31st December and am writing something - anything - to the particular phrase I find for every day. When I did it before, I thought it would just be a way of flexing writing muscles but it ended up being a treasure box of ideas when I wanted something to work from. Today's prompt is Once when no one was looking....

4 comments:

Sophie Playle said...

That's an excellent idea about the writing prompts! I may try that out too.

jem said...

I like your idea. I think its interesting to see what new directions a prompt can lead you in.

This year I am planning to use a 'Colors Journal' by Beth Nelson (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colors-Journal-Beth-Nelson/dp/0811841944/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199801760&sr=1-19) that I've been saving for a couple of years. Each page has a different word on it, relating to the coloured section it is in. I plan to write a few sentences each day, at whatever colour I flick open to, and see how it grows as a whole.

Sarah Salway said...

Great, Capulet, look forward to hearing how you get on, and that looks fascinating, Jem. I'll look out for that when I'm back. Happy new year to you both.

Anonymous said...

I have shamelessly copied your idea myself - well you did tell us about it after all. And the prompts are great because I haven't yet filled up the second half of the diary.