Poetry Thursday 3 - Not up to me

 I actually wrote this poem three months ago but after listening to a current affairs phone-in programme it seems even more relevant today. Perhaps I should re-publish every three months until the election.

Not up to me

 

General election next year,

but there’s no point in voting,

my opinion is without value I fear,

I’ll see the result in the morning.

 

I don’t like what has happened to my country,

under the current oppressive thumb,

but if I vote for the other party,

in this constituency they’ve never won.

 

I wish there was a better way,

a system that gives a more balanced outcome,

but I’ll probably never see the day,

when our decision sheds elitism,

 

and is representative of lots of views,

rather than the divisive two party rule.

Still they aren’t interested in my muse,

so I’ll stay home and keep my cool.

© David L Atkinson May 2023 

God Bless 

Writing - Emotions

 Someone brighter than me once said that there are only 7 basic story lines, well after watching yet another version of children taken from teenage mothers in Ireland I know what they meant. In all seriousness, there are limits to the ways in which you can construct a story but the emotional responses by humans to a variety of situations count in thousands.

So that is what the TV production teams are doing, they are regurgitating stories and putting a different emotional stress on how the stories are delivered or who is to be the centre of the story. Then, by using classy actors, they deliver a well-used tale in a different way. 

The next step for our writers is to use similar tactics to refresh the characters we create and the stories in which we place them. Of course, that is where the marketing people will try and guide you into what they feel is the best way to make sales, but the stories as you create them are your babies!

In writing For the Best I felt that Patrick Steele was coming towards the end of his current pattern of behaviour. That simple feeling meant that I had to consider how he would react in situations similar to those encountered in previous stories. That action refreshed my thinking about the character with which I had become very familiar. How you change your character's responses is personal to you but go with your gut feeling. 

The emotional aspect of creating a story is the key to how you feel about your work but the response of readers will probably be different from your perception but those responses are beyond your control. It's a lottery. The need to innovate will always be there but the fuel for the writer is in the observation of emotions in action in other people responding to different situations. There is no downside to observing for a writer but beware of repeating situations as in the one described above. Eventually, it will pall. 

God Bless 

Poetry Thursday 2 - Rather not #ToriesDestroyingOurCountry

 I know it's not political season but there are things that prey on the mind even in the silly season.

Rather Not

 

I’d rather read a telephone

directory than listen

to more excuses from a Tory.

 

Better to watch a cartoon about a dory,

or celebrate Newcastle glory,

bump along in the back of a lorry,

than consider the actions of a Tory.

  

More interesting to count every calorie,

or sleep in a teenage boy’s dormitory,

succumb to a request to clean lavatory,

than to acknowledge the success of a Tory.

 

Better to eat bugs with an aborigine,

or fail in everything academically,

swim in the dark pond in a quarry,

than to admit to ever voting Tory.

 

But there is such a complex history,

why millions voted them is admonitory,

choices they made were not mandatory,

however, why my friends?

Contradictory!

© David L Atkinson August 2023

God Bless 

Writing - Atmosphere

 

Atmosphere

As a writer leads the reader through the story being produced they need to try and generate an atmosphere that engages with the readers’ emotions. Investing in emotional responses is essential if you want your readers to like what you produce. 

Having travelled in Eire I chose to set the opening of Inceptus in that delightful land. The weather was rather damp while I was there and my experience is reflected in the opening paragraph below.

What I was hoping the reader would experience was the feelings one can have in a rain shower. By describing the rain as ‘soft’ and ‘warm’ I wanted to move away from the usual cold, wet and uncomfortable and perhaps generate a smile. As this was the first paragraph in the story it is an important step. 

Forgive the advert for my books at Amazon but that is the business.

The atmosphere in your writing will obviously change as the story progresses and how you manage transitions needs to be carried out with care to make the experience as smooth as possible. So although Inceptus begins in Ireland it does not stay there and hopefully the reader doesn’t feel warm and soft all the way through the book. 

God Bless 

Poetry Thursday 1 - HQG

 Sometimes you just have to let the imagination wander where it will.

HQG

 

When I saw him in the yard,

I stared at him right hard

as he was no bigger than a 12 year old,

pulling on a pipe.

His daughter was almost six feet tall,

but there he was suited and booted,

her much loved dad Ron

who was no bigger than a leprechaun.

 

And as I crested the brow of the hill,

a whooshing sound made me feel quite ill,

I paused before taking another step

on my elevated road.

Needs must being what it is

I continued in spite of the rain,

and was faced with a puffing steam train.

© David L Atkinson August 2023 

God Bless