sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

Laid Low

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On Tuesday I complained of a sore shoulder but joked about the side effect – being too sore to do housework. By Thursday afternoon it had gone beyond a joke and I was in absolute agony. After a sleepless night Thursday night I took myself to outpatients at the local hospital – the only Doctor being out of town for the day. Since then I have managed to see the doctor, too, and, with medication have the pain back to bearable level. But the side effect is a fuzzy head, so writing and housework have both suffered whilst I’ve spent a lot of time resting. It’s so rare for me to do nothing, but that’s just what I’ve been doing for most of the past three days. Even reading has been a struggle.

This afternoon I feel like I might be getting better and I do hope so. I have stories to write, books to read, and a family to spend quality time with. But the time out has probably been a blessing – maybe I just needed some recharge time. And perhaps I’ll appreciate the work more when I get back into it.

And Another

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I worked this afternoon in my teaching job and came home with an idea for a new kids’ poem in my head, so I’ve just sat down and written the first draft. I opened up one of my favourite sites, looking for a rhyme for (of all things) ‘rhyme’. The site I used is Rhyme Zone. It’s a handy little tool which works like a rhyming dictionary. Type in a word and it will give you a list of rhyme matches, organised by syllables.

I use it often and will be using it again when it comes time to revise this poem and the one I wrote a few days ago.

Another Useful Site

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Pemberthy decided to write a haiku this morning, and I helped him find some information about the form to include his blog.

The search led me to a site which has a listing of over 500 poetic forms. You can see the list here. Each poetic term is a clickable link which leads you to an explanation of the form and, in many cases, further links to examples of the form. It’s fun to experiment with different poetic forms. It can also be great for discipline.

Writing a haiku requires you to bare everything down to just 17 syllables. Abbreviated haiku, I’ve just discovered, have even less – just nine syllables. Other forms need very specific rhyme or rhythm patterns.

Even if you don’t think you’re a poet, why not have a go? You could start with something relatively simple (and fun) such as a limerick, or might want to challenge yourself with any of the other 500 forms. Pemberthy and I will certainly be exploring further.

Let me know how you get on.

Ouch

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My back is playing up. I have a sharp pain near my right shoulder blade that just won’t go away. It was sore yesterday, had me tossing and turning all night and today is so sore I can’t vacuum, which is what I had planned for this morning. I’ve tried all my usual tricks. There’s an exercise involving lying flat on the floor with books under your head to bring your spine into alignment. Hasn’t worked this time. I’ve tried stretching the shoulder gently. Hasn’t worked. I have a bottle of stuff called Pain Cream which smells delightfully lavendery and that does ease the pain temporarily but doesn’t cure it.

Anyway, the good thing is, the shoulder pain doesn’t get worse when I sit at my desk and type, so instead of house work I’ve been able to get some stuff done. I uploaded ten new reviews to Aussiereviews, which always makes me feel good. The postie rewarded (?) me with bringing a parcel containing another seven books for review, this time from ABC Books.

The review update done, I had a chance to revisit one of my little 600 word stories from last week, which is coming along. I also typed up some free verse poems which I wrote at bedtime a couple of nights ago. I think I might have the beginnings of a free verse novel there. The main character has started whispering little snippets to me and I’ve had to jot them down.

I used to write everything down as it came to me, then redraft as I typed it into word on my computer. These days, I write prose straight onto the screen, though I still like to reread in hard copy. Now that I’m working with poetry for the first time in a long while, I’m finding the inspiration is hitting me when I’m away from the computer and when it isn’t necessarily convenient to use the computer. I don’t have a laptop, but even if I did, I like writing the old fashioned way sometimes.

Anyway, it seems the sore shoulder has been a blessing today because I’ve got lots done. I’d best stop complaining about the pain and take the time to write write write.

Newsletters

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I had an article in this morning’s Pass It On Newsletter. If you are an Aussie writing for children, or even thinking about writing for children, this newsletter is a must have. It is a weekly offering in the form of n interactive networking newsletter. Interactive because the content is submitted by fellow subscribers, and compiled by the wonderful Jackie Hosking. There is news, articles, hand tips, useful web links, book reviews, author profiles and much more in each week’s issue.

Anyway, I had an article n this morning’s issue entitled Eight No or Low Cost Ways to Promote Yourself. Self-promotion is important for published and unpublished writers, but can sometimes be quite daunting. Putting my experiences into an article will hopefully help otters and also served as a reminder to myself of the things I should be doing.

I also had an email from Di Bates, accepting an article for Buzzwords Magazine. Again, if you are writing for children, this is a must-have ezine. Buzzwords is a bi-monthly electronic magazine filled with news, interviews, articles and more, compiled by Di, who is a well known and respected author, and newly the editor of Little Ears, a children’s magazine which is shaping up to be a wonderful publication.

The article for Buzzwords (which will be published in November) is about Aussiereviews, my review website, and about how and why I set it up and maintain it. Di said the nicest things in her acceptance email, which have given me a nice warm glow. All praise is nice, but praise from a respected peer is always special.

I write articles to promote myself and my books, but I also do enjoy helping and/or inspiring others. Best of all, when I write such an article I remind myself of lots of things which I already knew but which might be stored away in the deep dark recesses of my fuzzy brain. Bringing them to the fore renews my awareness of them and refreshes my enthusiasm.

Check out Buzzwords and PIO,if you haven’t already, and, if you know something about anything, consider sharing your knowlegde through an article. You might help others as well as yourself.

Reports

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The good news – today I spent most of the day writing. The bad news – I was writing school reports. Yes it’s that time of year and, as a part time teacher, I had to give up some of my writing time to produce feedback on my students’ progress.

When I started I was feeling a little resentful of the time being taken away from more productive pursuits. I figured I would perhaps do some, so that I could tell myself I’d made a start, and then have a break for some quality writing time. Then, once I’d got started and mastered the new reporting form which involved logging on to the server from home and filling in the appropriate fields, I figured I’d keep going until I’d done it all. Then I could get it out of the way and have tomorrow for writing time.

So, that’s what I did and now it’s all done for another six months and I feel good about that. But, along the way I realised that writing report comments isn’t the worst way I could spend my writing time, because I was writing (and in my opinion every bit of writing adds to your total experience) and, at the same time, I was actually challenging myself to really mean what I was writing.

It isn’t always easy (or possible) to come up with a completely new comment for each student. But it IS possible (and should be compulsory) to be sure that you can justify what are you saying. So, you have to stop and think before you write, and again after you’ve written, whether the comment is fair and reasonable. You also have to be constructive, so that you are offering the student and parent the chance to understand how they can improve or maintain their grades.

Anyway, I’m glad it’s over, but not so resentful of the time now that I’ve thought more about it. I also snatched ten minutes to jot down the outline of a story that’s been incubating, so I’m looking forward to get more time with that one.