Author: Darren

  • Review of my new journal set-up

    The first review of my new journal set-up using different journals for weekly and daily planning. A quick look at an issue relating to my junk journal. And a quick trip to the beach to talk about creative and inspiring sounds.

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  • Be happy – Friday Fiction Writing Prompt

    Be happy – A Fiction Writing Prompt to stretch the literary muscles. No rules. No word counts. Simply write and explore.

    It felt like every muscle on my face took part in producing my smile. My skin stretched like a supple yoga enthusiast. - Friday Fiction Writing Prompt

    It felt like every muscle on my face took part in producing my smile. My skin stretched like a supple yoga enthusiast.

    Writing Prompt Expanded

    This week’s Friday Fiction Writing Prompt is all about showing and describing but without telling. Let me explain. The challenge is to show that your character is happy without saying they are happy. It is very easy to say x or y was happy, but it isn’t very exciting and it doesn’t engage the reader on a deeper level. Saying someone is happy is plain and passive. It has its place but will not let your reader engage on a deep level with your character(s). Showing what your character feels, rather than telling, allows the reader to join in the experience. It brings the narrative much closer, and when you write, closeness is good.

    It is all about describing the change, from one state of being to happiness.

    • How does your character look?
    • Does their voice change?
    • What is different about them?

    Of course, you don’t need to use the prompt as it is. You can play with any emotion or feeling as long as you don’t say what it is, happy, sad, angry etc. No rules just write and enjoy.

    As always these writing prompts are optional and entirely open to your own interpretation. Use them as a starting point for a short story or something a little more grandiose. If you do write something, please share it or a link, in the comments or tag me. I’d love to read what you create. Write and enjoy the learning process.

    Background Image of the lady by Free-Photos from Pixabay


    Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
    namaste
    d
    xox

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  • New Moon in Virgo Intentions Ritual

    New Moon intentions in my journals

    Each lunar month I use the New Moon as a marker to set some short term goals and intentions. I use the New Moon as I like the symbolism of birth and growth, dark to light and its cyclical nature. There is a completeness that nature provides that isn’t found in my basic monthly to-do list.

    The process I follow is listed below, but I don’t keep rigidly to it. That’s another reason I like this ritual. It’s one of those higher-level, fluid processes that I can use and not feel like it is using or controlling me.

    • New moon: set intention(s)
    • Waxing half-moon: adjust actions to reach intention(s)
    • Full-moon: reach and work through intention(s)
    • Waning half-moon: adjust ongoing actions to maintain intention(s)

    And so it has come to pass that I am at another New Moon ritual. And, as you can see I have a plethora of journals that I am noting it in. They will all record pretty much the same, however, some are more visual reminders than practical planners.

    This New Moon I am thinking about the wider world in addition to my personal goals. The virus and other issues have caused great hardship and damage to people’s lives, both mentally and physically. Other issues around the globe are also causing concern. It feels like the world needs a little help. So, in addition to my personal intentions, I am raising a prayer, a thought, an intention that the world can begin to heal. It is in need of a little tincture, or perhaps radical intervention, either way, I pray.

    Personally, this New Moon is all about using my own talents and abilities. I need to defeat the self-doubt demons and slay the self-sabotaging ones who often work with them.

    Overall, this New Moon in Virgo is all about getting serious with things, both globally and in my own life. The two are linked quite closely at the moment. Things are beginning to move and I need to be ready.


    Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
    namaste
    d
    xox

    If you enjoyed this post please support my writing by making a donation of any amount.

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  • My latest journal set-up – New Size

    A look at my latest journal set-up as I prepare for the week ahead. I am separating my monthly and weekly from my daily, in an attempt to find the right size and feel for each day. All part of my ongoing quest to find my perfect journal set-up. I’ll be back soon with a review of how is it going.


    Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
    namaste
    d
    xox

    If you enjoyed this post please support my writing by making a donation of any amount.

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  • Finding the right size – Journal update

    Finding the right size - journal update video cover

    A junk journal and planner update in which I talk myself into using another journal… what’s he like?

  • The old journal – Friday Fiction Writing Prompt

    A Fiction Writing Prompt to stretch the literary muscles. No rules. No word counts. Simply write and explore.

    I discovered it at the bottom of the trunk. I opened the old, dusty journal and began to read. A life long gone breathed again… Friday Fiction Writing Prompt

    I discovered it at the bottom of the trunk. I opened the old, dusty journal and began to read. A life long gone breathed again…

    Writing Prompt Expanded

    You might have noticed but I like to journal. In fact, I am an avid journal user. I often find I am repeating myself in several places. If you picked up and read my journals, you’d get a pretty good idea of what my life is like. And that is exactly where we are going with this prompt

    This prompt is all about recreating a world from the past. Your character is reading an old journal and as they do they discover the life of the person who wrote it.

    • What year was the journal written?
    • Is the journal written by a relative?
    • If they had an occupation, what was it?
    • Was their life difficult or easy?
    • What things concerned them day by day?

    This prompt will help you bring an old world to life. Creating a believable setting for your characters and stories is a vital skill. Using this journal style prompt is one way to do that. You describe someone’s life and therefore describe the world they inhabited. And even just several years in the past can make a huge difference to the way people lived. Smartphones and the Internet didn’t exist twenty or so years back.

    As always these writing prompts are optional and entirely open to your own interpretation. Use them as a starting point for a short story or something a little more grandiose. If you do write something, please share it or a link, in the comments or tag me. I’d love to read what you create. Write and enjoy the learning process.

    Original Journal Image by JamesDeMers from Pixabay


    Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
    namaste
    d
    xox

    If you enjoyed this post please support my writing by making a donation of any amount.

    Sign up for my (ir)regular newsletter to keep up to date with my creative adventures, including special offers, and join me on Instagram | YouTube | Twitter | Pinterest