Tag: #creativity

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Life and writing…

Hey guys, this week has been tough. The whole world is in turmoil at the moment, and personally there are quite a few things that are difficult for me at the moment. Family things with siblings health and personal things in my own life as well. I find people are often harsher than I think they will be, which shocks me. I know I am not perfect either to other people but I try to be sensitive to people’s feelings. This week I was shocked by harshness and it was painful. I feel like I am more optimistic or idealistic than other people, and then the reality of this sets in for me when other people are not the same. I am shocked back into the reality that people don’t think the way I do. Some do, and some don’t.

Anyway, let’s move on to my writing, I found this week with my novel I have hit a road block. The part of my novel I thought I would find the most straight forward to write – I am finding the hardest. This part of my novel is the part that is somewhat representative of my own life and experience. I am finding it hard as I have to choose what parts of my life to include, the characters that I write about as well and what not to include.

My novel writing is the thing that makes me feel alive and doing what I am meant to, (my faith in God makes me feel hopeful,) and this week it has stalled. I need to just keep going. I need to find my way back into the novel and what is happening. I will seek to do that today. Soon, I will be teaching more and my energy will be focused on this. I wanted to have a whole draft completed before then but this does not look realistic now. It is close though.

Anyway, it is a beautiful day and there is much to be thankful about. I am thankful for family, sunshine, health, flowers, the ocean and the beach and the mountains. One day I hope to be travelling again, because that is when I feel most alive and engaged. But then again I value being in one place as well, especially as I am able to create. Life is balance.

I hope you are finding joy in the little things. Feel free to comment if you wish. Have a peaceful day. Love Suz.

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Creative processing… :)

Hey everyone,

It is a disturbing time in many ways right now, but also there are positives coming out of this horrendous worldwide situation. I think on the whole people are appreciating their relationships more, and, for some, they are expressing things they haven’t before. It has made me realise a lot of things. Made me see certain relationships that are important to me, that I didn’t realise the significance of until they were taken away, for a brief time.

It is interesting. I feel a lot of things will change through this pandemic. In some ways, I hope and pray that we realise the essential things in life and how this short life should be lived to the full.

My brother died at age 37 and I was very close to him. After he died I realised that I didn’t want to waste my life doing things I was meant to do, instead of things I felt called to do, or had a passion for.

I have always known I was a writer since I was a young child. I fell in love with words from the moment I learnt to read and write them. I fell in love with story as well. I wrote and drew comic books and drew pictures, wrote stories and made pop up books. So for me, I knew following the death of my brother that I needed to write every day of my life .That is my purpose, I know that for certain. I must admit it took me a couple of years to really embrace this, and I enrolled in my masters to focus on writing. I had wanted to do that since I had graduated from my first degree. Doing a masters allowed me to focus on writing, which my life had only partially allowed me to do. Since then I have written and published my first novel, Where the Sun Rises which took me 3.5 years and thousands of hours of research to write, even travelling to the Israeli and Syrian border.

That was an amazing experience and it is a novel I really believe in. Check it out if you’re interested. 🙂 It is about the real life phenomenal women who fought in Syria.

Anyway, in the past months I have written 54,000 words of my new novel working title, Sarah Johns. It is about a foreign correspondent from Sydney who is in my first novel. Now that I have written 75% of the novel and I am at a certain point where I know what is going to happen but the details are not set in stone. This is how I prefer to write, I know how it will end but not all of the details. It helps me to be inspired to keep going and exploring the idea, characters and where it is going.

I am thankful in this COVID time that I have had the time to write a first draft of this novel, as often we don’t have the time do we? I am extremely grateful for this. I am grateful for my family and friends as well and for health. I hope you are all keeping safe and staying well! Love to you all.

Kind regards, Suz

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New novel – Sarah Johns…

Hey everyone,

During these lock down times and times of quarantine I have been trying to make the most of more time to write. I feel this is a unique time where I can get the whole first draft of my next novel written. This novel is quite different from the last novel I wrote which required research about absolutely everything. My new novel is in first person, I am enjoying writing with first person as I haven’t done this for years now. This story is also about someone who is Australian and also someone who is a journalist – therefore it is easier for me to write this book. This character comes from Sydney, which is where I am from. Of course this is her story, not mine, but it is a lot easier to write this book in many ways. Though no doubt as I progress there will be challenges – there always is. Each book has its own particular hurdles, however, I am enjoying this process and I have now written 36,460 words of this next book.

I always knew Where the Sun Rises (WTSR) might be the hardest book I attempted to write, due to the fact that I had to research everything, including; culture, on the ground war facts, conditions in Syria, how it felt to be there as well as focalising from another cultural point of view, and from two points of view. It was an ambitious feat 😉 I am glad I wrote it. But I just wanted to say I am enjoying not having to research absolutely everything. 🙂 Though of course there is some research I will have to do, though nowhere near as much as WTSR.

Anyway, stay tuned for this next book. Also, I hope you are able to do some creative things in this time. Whatever you like to do. I have also been knitting, buying pot plants, exercising a bit and drawing. 😀 So, go forth and be creative. Thanks for reading! Remember, you’re not alone. 😀 Take care, Suz

Bilgola Beach, Sydney.

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