Freestyle Writing Challenge

     My topic: The best quality that you possess

I find writing things like this very difficult. I am quite a self-deprecating person and I find it hard to take compliments so writing a post about my best quality is quite difficult for me, but I shall try! 

I try my best to be a compassionate person. When other people criticise someone, I am usually the one defending them, even if that person happens to be in the wrong. I am a big believer in forgiveness as I feel that holding on to negative feelings only causes harm in the long run. When someone in my family or one of my friends is arguing with someone, I will always be the one to play devil’s advocate. I will pose questions that I hope will get them to consider the motives of the other person and prompt them to consider that maybe something caused the other person to behave in such a way. I am not saying that I defend people who are malicious or evil, I just think it’s important that we don’t jump to conclusions about a person’s intent or motive. I suppose I aim to be just like my favourite literary character, Atticus Finch, in that I aim to show empathy and understanding for others. And that’s my best quality, I think. I try to climb into someone else’s skin and walk around in it..in an Atticus Finch kind of way, not a Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs kind of way.

  
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Words: 249 in ten minutes 

So in case you guys are wondering what the heck I’m on about, I was invited by the wonderful Spence’s Girl to take part in a free style writing challenge. Here are the rules that I have copy and pasted from her blog:

Open an MS Word document (or Pages)

1. Set a stop watch or your mobile to 5 minutes or 10 minutes whichever challenge you think you can beat. 

2. Your topic is at the foot of this post BUT DO NOT SCROLL DOWN TO SEE IT UNTIL YOU ARE READY WITH A TIMER.

3. Fill the word doc with as many words as you want. Once you began writing do not stop even to turn.

4. Do not cheat by going back and correcting spellings and grammar with spell check in MS WORD (it is only meant for you to reflect on your own control of sensible thought flow and for you to reflect on your ability to write the right spelling and stick to grammar rules)

5. You may or may not pay attention to punctuation and capitals. However, if you do, it would be best.

6. At the end of your post write down ‘No. Of words =_____’ so that we would have an idea of how much you can write within the time frame.

7. Do not forget to copy paste the entire passage on your blog post with a new Topic for your nominees and copy paste these rules with your nominations (at least 5 bloggers).

Now, as usual, I’m going to cheat a little here. I think this is such a great challenge, and very liberating, so I would like everyone to do it! Yes, that’s right, all of you! If you are reading this and you’re thinking “hey, that seems like something I’d like to do” then I’d be delighted if you would go right ahead and doooo iiiiit! Just let me know in the comments if you are going to partake. It was a lot of fun. 

And your topic?

Well….

You can’t look…

…just yet….

You have to be ready to write….

….the minute you see it….

…so without further ado….

Your topic is…..

What is your favourite memory? 
Now GO GO GO!

  

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P.S. Those of you who have kindly nominated me for awards (you beauties!), I have not forgotten 😘 I am on it like a car bonnet. Or a pepperoni pizza. 

Two Challenges, oh yeeeah!

The lovely Cheryl over at Tropical Affair nominated me to take part in the Love in Ten Lines challenge. I say challenge because this: 

All of this…

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I sat down to do this challenge thibking “pfft, I got this.” Cheryl’s genius post made it look so easy. I forgot that she is a skilled poet and I struggle to make word good sound nice. See? Check out her lovely poem at the link above.

The challenge is to write ten lines of poetry, with four words in each line, all including the word love. It sounds deceptively easy. Just as I was about to hit publish on my “I love Nutella sandwiches X 10” post, I saw that the lovely Mecia Not Quite London from had nominated for the Love/Hate tag. You are supposed to write down ten things you love and ten that you hate. Simples. That when this happened:

  
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Why don’t I just combine both challenges? I can write ten things I love using four words per line. Ah, being a genius, it’s not always easy.

So here goes:

I love red lipstick

I love milk chocolate

I love my fiancé

I love my pets

I love scented candles

I love being weird

I love to laugh

I love warm cuddles

I love being outside

I love funny people 

Okay, so not exactly W.B. Yeats material but it will do. Now I’d better list what I hate:

• Rude people
• Standing still for too long
• Stubbornness
• Raisins
• Animal cruelty
• Crowds
• Being separated from those I love 
• Doubt 
• Being misunderstood 
• Waiting for too long 

So, just because I cheated doesn’t mean you guys have to 😄

The first challenge is the Ten Line Poetry competition and I have plenty of poetically-gifted friends who will smash this! Just to recap the rules:

-you must compose a ten line long poem with four words in each line, one to be the word “love”. It’s, er, not that difficult. 

I nominate the wonderfully talented Melanie over at Wordifull

The very creative David from toofulltowrite

And the brilliant Floridaborne over at Two on a Rant

If anyone can do this, they can! Although there’s no pressure to partake guys. 

Next, I need to nominate some people for the Love/Hate tag. It’s simple: you basically list ten things you hate, ten things you love and then choose ten bloggers to do the same. That I can do. 

  
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My nominees are: 

I Prefer Deep Blues and Sea Foam Greens
Mother Hen Diaries
A Cookbook Collection
Tropical Affair (gotta return the love😃)
The V-pub

Post Curfew Bewonderments 

Again, no pressure to take part guys! Have a great day, wherever you are! 

Writing Process Blog Tour

Aisha over at The Hashtag Generation and Minnie over at A Minnie Blog have chosen me to partake in a little post to describe the process I go through when writing posts for my blog. I can assure you that it is extremely physical and strenuous. Ahem.

Basically, it’s like this but with less old Chinese men….

Aisha and Minnie’s blogs are both great and their posts (which I’ve linked to above) will give you a little more insight into their blogs.

Basically the writing process blog tour is a way for bloggers to give a little insight into their own blogs. There are four questions to answer, and you then nominate three bloggers who carry on the tour exactly a week later? So in Irish time, I’ve got very little time to finish this argh!

So, let’s begin:

1. What are you working on?

Well, I just made lasagne….oh, my blog…right. I’m actually working on improving my blog a little over the summer. I would like a little more structure to it. I’m just going to clean it up a bit and organise it a little better, although organisation is not exactly my strong suit. You guys need to see my shoe closet.

I would like to do more collaborative stuff, or even have guest posters so if you’re interested, you know what to do. Oh, you don’t? EMAIL MEEEE!

2.How does your work differ from other’s in its genre?

The thing is, I don’t necessarily look at myself as having a “genre”. I have talked about such a wide variety of topics that I don’t really know where I belong here. *Goes to cry in the shower*
I suppose I would like to think that I have a good sense of humour, that I’m very laid back about this whole thing, but that I also try to write about serious topics…sometimes. I’ve said this before, but the best compliment for me is knowing that I’ve made someone laugh or even smile. Why am I suddenly sounding like Miss World?

3.Why do you write what you do?

In case any of you don’t know, I’m a teacher. I love my job, but maaaan, it’s stressful. When I began this blog, I was going through a very difficult time in my life (seriously Miss World, f**k off!) and I suppose I just wanted an outlet. My “real” life often requires me to be very serious and responsible and I suppose I just wanted a place where I could be weird and silly. I never, ever thought people would actually read this. So, from the bottom of my aortic pump, THANK YOU.

4. How does your writing process work?

Okay. I have to be honest here. This post is one of the first times that I have ever used a laptop to write a post. I ALWAYS use my phone. I know this will seem a little strange to you all, but there’s a reason for it.

When I first started, I had a laptop. After a few days, it broke. Jack is doing a PhD, so he uses his all the time. I got comfortable using my phone, and I just haven’t really gone back.

So, how do I get inspiration for posts I hear no one ask? Well, it could come from anywhere. I might see a beautiful rainbow and think “man, I love owls” or I might see a sunset and think “I’m going to write about my mad karaoke skills.” It’s a rich tapestry.

Blogs I am going to choose to continue the tour:
(If you don’t wish to participate, or have been chosen to already, there’s no hassle in the castle)

Julie from Musings From a Workaholic

V from The Verbal Spew Review

Tara from Love from Tara

Ladies, if you are so inclined, you continue the tour with the same questions in one week.

Also, a big thank you and hug to Sarah Kirkland from Falling with Style for the Dragon’s Loyalty Award and to Cheryl from Tropical Affair for the Quintet of Radiance Award. You guys are so getting virtual internet pie. You. Are. Welcome.

TWO MINUTES BEFORE MIDNIGHT. Winning.

Will you laugh?

This is a no laugh challenge that I GUARANTEE you will fail. If you don’t laugh, then you’re possibly a robot.

The clip is from the show Big Brother in Denmark. The contestants were told that they were to keep a straight face at all times. Then this happened:

So…did you laugh?

May Challenge and other stuff

Wow. Frankly I’m just going to have an awed silence for a moment at how creative that title is.

Moving on. The awesomely awesome (I’m just on a roll) Lisa Macy came up with a great idea. Basically, she posted a blog where she asked other bloggers to join her in a May challenge where you could choose to pursue a goal for the month of May, preferably health-oriented. The original post is here.

There are a number of bloggers taking up some great challenges. I decided that I was going to give up caffeine. Because I am generally a pretty strong willed person (except when it come to chocolate, I would love some chocolate, HAVE YOU GOT CHOCOLATE?!) I thought that this would be a breeze.

Man. Was I wrong. It’s only been a few days and well, this happened:

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On the first day, I didn’t really feel anything (possibly because my body was all like “haha, good one Jane. Look, I’m not going to unleash any withdrawal symptoms because we both know you’re going to be flooding me in sweet sweet caffeine any minute”). By the second day, I started to get headaches. My concentration was terrible (I actually gave a student eleven out of ten in an exam. I’m no Pythagoras but I’m sure that’s impossible). By then, my body was saying “listen here lady, you’ve basically been running on caffeine for ten years now. You gotta give me the goods. JUST HOOK IT TO ME VEINS!”

But I haven’t given in. I will not give in. As much as I would adore a redbullamericanoespressocola right now, I’m doing this. I am doing this.
I’ve been drinking cranberry tea at work. My colleagues basically hear me whisper to my cup everyday: “you’re not worthy. You’re not real tea. You’re an IMPOSTER!”

Maybe I’ll take up smoking.

I’M KIDDING!

P.S. As I knew I would because I have a bad brain, I forgot to mention some people in my super-cool rap. I’m actually so nervous that someday I will win an Oscar and totally forget to thank Meryl Streep and she won’t invite me to her after party. Ugh.
But really, I’m sorry to the people I didn’t mention (there’s a few of you). Look at it this way, at least you didn’t once try to grill an egg. Because neither did I. Ever. In a George Foreman. Shut up Jane.