Procrastination and Spirit Animals

 

For over a year I have procrastinated on my well overdue novel. I was the queen of procrastination and people were even making smug comments about how long I was taking. Then Covid struck and this sluggish writer used it as an excuse. And it was just an excuse as I got many other jobs done. But what hit me hard was recently finding out that part of my original plot, based on historical evidence, could no longer be used. It was out dated information. My original plan had worked so perfectly and I tried hard to make this new information fit without disturbing the facts, but I could not. Chapters will have to be removed, areas re-written, new plots created and I sunk to a new low in my writing and worried if it would ever be finished. 

But what does this and procrastination have to do with spirit animals?

The other day a female sparrow joined me on my deck. She sat just a foot away from me. I said hello and thanked her for visiting me. A few years back many sparrows were coming into my yard but after a neighbours fire took away their favourite tree (in my yard) I rarely see them, let alone have a private conversation with one.

To have a visit again, for her to sit and listen to my chatter and babbling about all kinds of things for a good five minutes, was such a wonderful moment.

That night as I lay in bed wide awake at a late hour, my brain found the answer to my plot/story issues. 'I can do this,' I said to myself. 'That will work perfectly' - I had the answer and best of all, my enthusiasm had returned, I felt excited about writing again.

How did the sparrow fit in with this new revelation? Perhaps it doesn't, perhaps it was pure coincidence, a moment of lockdown madness or just wishful thinking.

The next morning I considered the visit from the sparrow and decided to put it to the test and searched meanings behind their spiritual inspiration . Here is what I found in google search - The Sparrow represents - joy, community, teamwork, protection, hard work, self worth, the keeper of ancestral knowledge (nice one), rebirth, diligence, creativity, and productivity. 

Further searches found this - 'the sparrow advises you to avoid procrastination and to clear all tasks.'  Seriously, I kid you not. How did this sparrow know? And it went further, 'when you welcome this spirit guide into your life you'll be equally diligent. You will not be one to procrastinate."  And this, 'The sparrow provides you with the drive you need to achieve goals, it teaches you to be proud of yourself. '

I have to admit this threw me. I am not normally superstitious or a spiritual person, yet I feel there was more to this meeting that just a passing visit.

Bede wrote about a sparrow in 731, only 59 years before my story begins. It is words said to have been spoken by one of King Edwin's thegns in the mead hall.

"The present life of man upon earth, O King, seems to me in comparison with that time which is unknown to us like the swift flight of a sparrow through the mead-hall where you sit at supper in winter, with your Ealdermen and Thanes, while the fire blazes in the midst and the hall is warmed, but  the wintry storms of rain or snow are raging abroad. The sparrow, flying in at one door and immediately out at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry tempest, but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of sight, passing from winter to winter again.

So this life of man appears for a little while, but of what is to follow or what went before. We know nothing at all."  -  St. Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

So when a sparrow is mentioned during my main characters time and visits me in my time of need, one who listens to me as I babble on and in that same evening answers come to me. yes, I will take that as spiritual guidance.

Whatever works right?

Not everyone will have a sparrow come into their life, but perhaps they will find another creature to set them on the right path, or more likely, it will find them. Of that I am sure.

 If you struggle to find one, just think of the sparrow as it goes about its daily task, working, productive and creative, remember its spiritual guide will provides you with the drive you need to achieve your goals.

You will never look at a sparrow in the same way. I know I won't.

 

 

 

The Magician

The Magician

I was making my way through one of the alleys in Melbourne when a young man, standing in a shop doorway, approached me.

"Mam, would you like some free hand cream?" He hands me a small blue sachet.  Then he hands me another one, cause apparently he likes me.

Thank you, I reply, but could not make my escape so easily. We chat for a bit, discussing his heritage and my heritage and then the discussion went to my skin, which, supposedly, was looking very sensitive.

"Come," he says, "I have the perfect cream for you."

I follow him into the small shop and he directs me to a chair. Ever so gently he applies some cream on my skin, just below the eyes, as that area needs some work, he said. He was polite in his comments but I know my skin and I know I have not given it the respect it deserves. But I listen and I let him do his spiel.

He massages one cream in, and then shows me another, and rubs that in too. Then he hands me the mirror. "Can you see the difference?"

Ahh, I thought, this is it, this is where I see  the magic happen. I look in the mirror and note one side of my face is fully lit by the ever glowing light to the right of me. The other side in semi darkness. I move my head from side to side as I look in the mirror. I reply. "It is hard to tell by the lighting."

You see, the bright light disguised the harsh lines, yes, I do have harsh lines, and the dull light allowed the crevices to stand out more, creating stronger lines and deeper shadows.

I smile at the magician, for it is not the magic of the cream he is using but the magic of smoke and mirrors. I note, on writing this, how the mirror was only handed to me after the cream was put on. Of course. It would not do for me to see that same variation before the cream, that would give away the magician's trick.

Then he mentions the bargain price, but that does not happen until he mentions the original price and how it is almost half the cost and a special price just for me, because, apparently, he likes me.

I decline but cannot make my escape just yet as the lovely young man, of Italian heritage, who likes me and thinks we have some kind of bond, has another offer for me.  Hand cream.

Have I heard of Manuka honey? Yes. He applies the honey and shows me how it removes the dry skin. I am impressed and nod. Then he brings on his next trick, no abrakadabra words here, just counting. He applies another cream, a moisturizer, rotating - one, two, three and four. And the cream disappears. He does the same to the other hand, but without the manuka honey. The counting continues to about ten. The dead skin did not allow the cream to be absorbed so quickly.

I nod again, impressed with his new trick.  

Then the bargain price is mentioned, just for me, special price of ninety-nine dollars. I redirect my nod and shake my head. "Sorry."  But he interrupts and tells me, not only do I get the cream, which will last a whole year, but I will get a free facial worth two hundred dollars. He informs me that if the cream runs out before the year is out, they will fill it up free. I questioned that. Too good to be true. But I would never know as I declined again.

I could see his facial expression change. He was not winning. The magician had lost his touch.

Or had he, for within a few moments, with no smoke or mirrors, and just like that, 'poof!' I disappeared out of sight.

On Writing (And Art)

Every time I reach that point of writing (too often) where I am stuck, I remind myself of that ever present advice - 'just get the first draft down.  It doesn't have to be good. Edit later.'

Just block it in I hear myself saying, and then it hit me this morning. 'Block it in', that is what I do with my art. It was a real revelation.

- Rough outline.

- Block in.

- Details later.

Now I am not sure why I never compared the two before, but as an artist and a wannabe writer it made perfect sense.

In my art classes, I am often consoling students about the early stages of their paintings. "It's just the block in stage, don't stress. All those luscious details will come later. Be patient."

Outline.

So let's compare.

Outline - in painting - Sketch in with paint the basics of your image - a guideline.

Outline - in writing - Plan out your story and break it down into a basic outline.

Blocked in

Block in - painting - Cover the canvas in paint, block in your basic colours until no canvas is showing.

Block in - writing - Write the first draft, roughly, but enough to say it is done. The story is written.

Layers and final details.

Details - painting - Build up your layers, start bringing in all those interesting details. Give your painting life.

Details - writing - Build up your story, edit, bring in those interesting details and give your story and characters life.

Details for both is not just a one off thing, it is about a process of building up, layers, edits, corrections and so it goes.

I have never had any problem building my paintings up using this process, so why shouldn't the same process work with writing.

It shouldn't and with this revelation hopefully I will get over this writers block thing and march ahead, putting on my layers of paint until I can have fun with all those yummy details. 

Blood Moon, Mars and a Northumbrian Noble.

A special blog seeing as we have a wonderful Blood Moon tonight.  What makes it so special? This time Mars will be the closest it has been since 2003.

Blood Moon - Here's one I prepared earlier.
Photo by me as noted by poor quality.

The last time these two events, a total lunar eclipse and the opposition of Mars, lined up was in the year A.D. 792.  And apparently it won't occur again for hundreds of years. How lucky are we?

.Mars has been growing brighter the past few weeks as it slowly approaches a state that astronomers call opposition, tonight, when it and the sun are on opposite sides of Earth. Earth and Mars align with the sun in opposition about once every two years.

But let us go back to the year A.D.792 - What was happening then and why is this relevant to my blog?

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us -   'A.D. 792. This year Offa, King of Mercia, commanded that King Ethelbert should be beheaded; and Osred, who had been king of the Northumbrians, returning home after his exile, was apprehended and slain, on the eighteenth day before the calends of October. His body is deposited at Tinemouth. Ethelred this year, on the third day before the calends of October, took unto himself a new wife, whose name was Elfleda.'

My main character, a Noble Warrior to King Ӕthelred, was right smack bang in the middle of all that drama, especially in Northumbria.  Perhaps he was looking up at the night sky during the lunar eclipse, and perhaps he noticed one star brighter than usual, or then again, perhaps he did not. 

But for me, tonight, I will believe that I am witnessing, or living through, the same phenomenon in which my main character  also experienced, or at least lived through 1,226 years ago.  

Wow!  Ok, so maybe the wow is more exciting for me, but I love that I have this wonderful link with my main man. This wonderful connection between a man who lived so many years ago and me, the person writing about him.

Who was this Noble Warrior you ask?  He is none of those listed above in the Chronicle, but you will learn more as my story becomes a reality.

Organizing your Research

Following on from my earlier post - 'Organisation is a skill", I thought we could look closer at the actual activity of being organised.

Now, I am not saying I have developed this skill, but rather, I have taken suggestions from other historical authors  and how they manage their research notes.

Extra wide dividers with tabs

Let us start with the basic ring binder method. For those who still like to sit and write  with pen and paper ( me), having your research material in binders is a convenient option. What could go wrong? You could buy those cheap tab dividers for starters, you know, the ones that disappear behind your plastic sleeves of information. Answer: Buy the extra wide ones. *see image.

You will also need lots of plastic sleeves for the multitude of information you print up, and more tab dividers and maybe, even more binders. Keep some large white stickers handy to place on your index page for that moment when your change your mind, move stuff around or just add new information to the ever growing file.

If you do most or all of your work on the computer it would make sense to be able to access all your files there too.

There are a number of programs/software available; Scrivener, Zotero, Endnote, Word, Excel, Evernote, Blue Orangizer, Noodle Tools, Research Gate, and Docear are some that have been noted by researchers as their go to tools. Most of which are all suitable for organising and saving research material.

I decided to give Scrivener a go and set up a free account with that purpose.  Scrivener is a word-processing program and outliner designed for authors. It provides a management system for documents, notes and other data. I found it reasonable basic but spent, what I consider, too much time setting it up. It has character and setting templates which were simplified.  I tried moving folders and chapters around but lost one, finding it later in another folder. Having said that, it was most likely just me trying to work things out as a newbie.

EverNote is an application which comes with a browser add-on, Zotero is an add-on for Firefox, and is helpful for managing and organizing bibliographies and reference materials.

Excel file with Census data

Excel files can be used in many ways. Whilst doing my family history research I used Excel to set up my massive accumulation of Census files from one particular line. It was a wonderful way of keeping track of all family members over the years , 1841 - 1911.  I also colour coded the different family groups. It is at this point I want to add that the English census is not only wonderful for family history, but also for researching a particular person in history who fits into that timeslot.

One cannot go past the hands on text books with their multitude of information, placed in a very accessible spot near your work space.

Whatever your method of filing, it is most important to keep track of the source from where your information comes from. There will always be someone who reads your book and says - 'That can't be right.'  And so you flip to your point of source and say, 'yes it is!'

My last point - save everything. 

Mystery Tour - Day 3

6th may 2018

It was too nice a day to walk in the shadows of  city buildings  or hover in dark alleys.

I took advantage of the perfect May weather and booked another River cruise. This time I headed the other way, out to Williamstown and back, a two hour journey.  I was directed to a smaller and older boat which I enjoyed more. It had character and everyone knows a boat with character is much more interesting.

David and Goliath

Again, I pushed my camera to work hard for me and in doing so broke my last record by accumulating over one hundred photos. Ever grateful for the invention of digital cameras.

As the boat navigated out of the Yarra River,  large ships moved slowly past us,  their little helpers tugging along beside or behind them.

Metal Giraffes

I fell in love with the giant metal giraffes as they guarded the Port, ever watchful,  heads high into the cloud.

Cranes pretending to be AT-AT

 Nor can I forget  those mechanical walkers, roaming the port like giant AT-AT vehicles. 

Shag on a rock (Pied Cormorants)

Bird life, fishermen, and buildings, all added to my growing number of images.

I spent most of the time on the small deck with a few others, enjoying the cool breeze on my face and the warmth of the sun across my back.
 

Wind in my hair

Nearing the end of the journey and motor trouble  became  obvious as the captain steered the boat in a wavering manner, stopping and starting the engine constantly. Something about the boat's character perhaps.  All good and no need to adorn our bodies with those vibrant accessories called Life Jackets.

Good to know

 

Back and safe on dry land, where I grabbed some lunch from a street stall at the Art Centre.

A few more photos of buildings in Flinders street , having spotted them the week before and had to have them for my 'building collection.' Yes, I actually have acquired enough images now to call it a 'collection'.

Day done and one thing I have learnt from these travels - you have to think like a tourist to appreciate what your city has to offer.

Mystery Tour - Day Two

29th April, 2018 - Melbourne

The weather started gloomy and the dark clouds promised rain as we headed off to the city. Today I had a companion, my sister Wendy, another soul in need of mystery adventures.

The Docklands was our destination, and sometimes you just have to plan ahead to know what tram to take or how much walking is involved. I guess my mystery trips are not as mysterious as I had originally planned.

Melbourne Star

We hopped on to the no.70 tram after a quick dash to catch it, (we waited at the wrong stop - although in our defence, the sign did state it stopped there.)

First stop "Melbourne Star'.

 In its early days, when the wheel was having major problems, I vowed I would never, ever go on it and here I was about to board the ride.

Following directions and finding some very helpful staff along the way, we made our way up to where you enter the cabin. Although the journey to the cabin is not complete without passing the smiling photographer who urges you to pose for photos, a special record of your trip.

My sister and I had the cabin to ourselves and learnt that you have to move reasonable quick to board the moving cabin and being ever watchful of the tiny little step as you do. An important point suggested by another lovely, smiling staff member.

Compass on ceiling

Safely on, our journey began. Slowly moving out and then upward. A voice  overhead tells you about your map and to check out the compass on the ceiling- a guide to let you know where various locations are. So we get out the map, turn it, check and turn it again. Content that we finally have it right we glance out the window at our lovely view. 

As the cabin rose higher my ability to stand close to the window slowly diminished, much to my sister's amusement, who managed the height issue brilliantly.

. . . and the rain came.

The dark clouds had kept their promise and the rain came.

Droplets of water blurred our view, but we were not disheartened as the effect added to the interest. As the clouds moved on, streams of light shone down over sections of the city creating a glorious glow, a lovely contrast against their shadowed neighboring buildings.

We made a friend

The top reached and as we started rolling downhill we became level with the cabin before us. To our delight a young boy sat by the window and was waving to us. A photo opportunity not to be missed and we waved back putting a smile on his little face.

Feet on the ground  and we had to weave our way through a maze of tunnels to find the exit. Passing through the inevitable souvenir shop and almost at the door when we were greeted by a young fellow, smiling of course, who reminded us of our earlier photo shoot. For a bargain price of $40 you can have a booklet with your photos in, thus costing more than the actual ride itself.

We passed on the offer and went off to grab some lunch, a kids serving of fish 'n chips.

This was not because we couldn't afford an adult size, or that we couldn't manage to eat it, but purely because the adult size was not available and that's what we wanted to eat.

Reflections on the Marina

Down to the marina for photos of boats, sculptures, buildings and old pier posts, then a quick visit to the  market stalls for perusing purpose only. Oh, ok, so we did buy something from one of the stalls, but those cute little animal ornaments could not be resisted.

On the tram and back to Flinders Street Station, a quick visit to photograph  more buildings in the area, an iced coffee and then train home again.

Me

Who would have thought I would have been brave enough to stand in a glass cabin reaching as high as a forty story building. The Eureka Skydeck awaits me . . . um, well, maybe!