Writing - Slacken Imagination

 Have you found yourself thinking that you've run out of imagination? Where is the next idea coming from? How do full-time artists do it? Even how brilliant is she/he. In fact, the problem is that we live in a world where information and opinion flood the senses 24/7. Our minds follow paths through that plethora of noise and favour some ideas and facts more than others. When someone suggests that you 'think outside the box' or indulge in some 'blue-sky thinking', they are just asking you to allow the strictures on your thinking to be released, or slackened off to allow in alternative ideas. 

Of course, that may be a little scary. Stepping away from conventions may entail attracting criticism, a factor no human is truly happy accepting. 

Like the box above. The sides aren't straight. The shading is not complete. I don't see what you are getting at. 

The short answer is that there is no right answer. The idea is that you take from the sketch what you want to take. 

You all know what this curly line represents. You may attach, colour, breed, situation and more, but the style you are happy with emerges from your experiences and preferences. 

In the visual arts you are free to copy life or make representations of life in the form that satisfies your imagination and artistic desires. Where did Munch see the 'Scream' or Dali his melting clocks? 

Similarly, when writing we are as free as a visual artist to create situations as we feel are appropriate to your narrative. 

God Bless 

Poetry Thursday 106 - Chilly

 Where has all the heat gone? 

Short time passing. 

Where has all the heat gone - short time ago. 

The central heating was 0.3 degrees from clicking on this morning, less than a week from a heat wave!!! 

Chilly

 

By heck its chilly,

and the wind is blowing willy nilly,

chilling the parts it shouldn’t reach,

I wish I was lying on the beach.

 

My goodness it really is cold,

the temperature is making me feel so old,

you know age causes your blood to thin,

this is an argument I cannot win.

 

Oh it’s absolutely freezing,

no I don’t want to go out playing,

even my big coat feels inadequate,

give me a nice coal fire and blanket.

 

‘It’s so cold I’ve got goosepimples,’

‘That’s ok it’ll match your dimples,’

‘Out you go and have some fun,’

but outside there’s only a big, cold sun.

 

‘A little cold will do you good,’

toughen the skin and thicken the blood,

the air is thin and so very clear,

it really makes you want to cheer.

 

It is so very chillingly bright,

to stay inside doesn’t seem right,

wrap up warm and put on a hat,

don your gloves and go out like that.

 

It is so cold you feel more alive,

wrapped up so tight, to move you strive,

the blood is coursing in your veins,

working the heart, stimulating brains.

 

Enjoy the chill stimulation of the senses,

fizzing brain cells the cold arouses,

go out into the world and enjoy nerves’ jingle,

watch nature’s response and life will tingle.

© David L Atkinson February 2021 

Really joking - honestly. 

God Bless 

Writing - Messages

 I've written about messages in writings in the past. Dickens highlighted social problems in the nineteenth century, and George Orwell wrote about totalitarianism and democratic socialism. I was inspired to write about a possible future energy crisis. 

Blurb

The story is a speculative journey into a possible future that may lie ahead of us all. There is evidence that such a future may not be impossible. We have been warned that unless we increase the ability to produce electricity, there could be power cuts in the next ten years. Our modern-day lives are permeated through with the need for electricity and its production.
Although Cessation could be categorised as a dystopian story, I find that rather a negative word, and the purpose of writing the tale is to allow elements of hope in a seemingly desperate situation.
The story begins in 2023, a couple of years after the lights go out for the last time. Our group of survivors is thrown together on a farm in the low Pennines north of the M62 motorway and within striking distance of a number of northern towns which could prove useful for supplies. Initially, the group is small and lives on a farm called Serendipity, but as time passes, the size of the group waxes and wanes for a variety of reasons. 

Although the story was written several years ago and begins in 2023, the issue could occur any year in the future. Nowadays, if I were to write something along dystopian lines, it would probably be about a public reaction to the poisonous form of capitalism that the world is under the thrall of at present. There are so many countries that are being run for the benefit of billionaires to the detriment of the larger population that something must break soon. 

Don't fight shy of tackling thorny problems! 

God Bless 

Poetry Thursday 105 - SOE

Not the Special Operations Executive, but rather Save Our Earth. 

SOE

 

Surely we now know that it’s true,

year after year the evidence mounts,

not single events or one issue,

but the conflated event counts.

 

Lip service is paid and change threatened,

but the road to hell are good intentions,

yet the clear threat has beckoned,

no change implemented because of deflections.

 

Yet some nations are making progress,

all electric trains in Holland use wind energy,

our drive to electric cars is in distress,

no spend on infrastructure, the litany.

 

The Germans are replacing diesel trains,

hydrogen driven beasts emitting water vapour,

our science reversed by political brains,

worshipping the old-fashioned oil abuser.

 

Norway and Japan have made changes,

the UK is striving to introduce,

the Earth needs positive accomplices,

not promises that fail to produce.

 

Everyone needs to set an example,

profit is a barrier to improvement,

clinging to traditional practices is unacceptable,

the Earth is in need of our commitment.

©David L Atkinson August 2025 

God Bless 

Writing - Enjoy it

 To all those would-be authors who are feeling depressed, frustrated or jaded in some other way about not getting published or the lack of an audience. You are doing something that most folk only dream of and never actually attempt. 

I recall many rejection slips, which were compounded by the publication of autobiographies by footballers that were frankly awful. The reason for their success was their fame, which had nothing to do with their ability to write. In fact, the quality of the writing is like the proverbial 'curate's egg', some is really good, others terrible. 

It was then that I discovered self-publishing, which actually served the purpose of my ambition to see my babies in print. I knew that when I began writing, it wasn't to earn a fortune, but a personal goal. 

Over the years, I self-published, earning relatively little, probably not enough to cover my costs, I enjoyed the experience. Remarkably, I still receive a trickle of royalties from various countries. 

It would have been possible to sell more if I had worked harder at the selling part of the role, but as I have always said, 

'I couldn't sell fridges in the desert.' 

God Bless 

Poetry Thursday 104 - Time Lies

 Time is a construct created to enable interactions between people on a large scale. If in doubt, remember we haven't always had our current calendar. We used a Roman calendar, which was then changed to the Gregorian an accepted international standard. Other calendars still exist - Chinese and Jewish (Hebrew). 

Time is important when examining the past. The past, history, is a collection of incontrovertible truths. 

Time Lies

 

No time like the present,

an inescapable truth for the future,

some defined point on an abstract human construct

yet to come,

never will for some.

 

And the past a collection of indisputable facts,

often disputed for nefarious ends,

and interpreted as far as the truth bends,

but truth will out.

 

Time and tide et cetera,

more unshakeable abstracts,

humanities way of coping,

with what is in fact just hoping, 

when essentially all of our plans

should be about now.

 

Give no credence to those interpreting the past,

they are trying to deny the undeniable,

by hiding the present,

behind a smokescreen that many will resent,

to hide crimes that historic truth will always reveal.

For out of the mist truth will steal.

©David L Atkinson August 2025 

God Bless 

Writing - Variations

 Writing over a period of time, in an imaginative way, requires backup notes, stamina and acceptance that writing is a dynamic process. Over the period I wrote the Steele novels, the characters aged, changes occurred in the setup, and one or two characters disappeared. 

Maurice Flitcroft 

The changes that arise in your writing are entirely under your control, but it is plain that if your writing is to maintain its dynamism, then changes will be necessary. Whatever you decide upon will fit better if it is seen to develop for a reason or as a result of a previous action. The direction of your tales will be maintained. 

BFG 

If Superman had been changed into a gill-breathing giant, without some level of explanation and previous fans may totally lose interest. So it is a process that requires care and nurturing. Rather like an actor who changes roles, preparation is necessary. 

Thomas Cromwell 

I spent 10 or 12 years writing the Steele novels, but after four, I had a change in inspiration and wrote a dystopian story, which someone suggested would be good for a TV series. That tale was 'Cessation' and set in the future, predicting the breakdown in society as a result of electricity running out! It was a total break from Steele and as such provided some refreshing opportunities which the remainder of the Steele books were to benefit from in quality. 

Change is okay! 

FYI - the sketches are of actor Mark Rylance playing three of his many roles.

God Bless