FOR ME IT’S ART AND WRITING

What stops you doing something creative? Lack of spare time, not interested in having a hobby, work or family is all you need. That seems to be a rather one dimensional approach to our short time on this planet. I’m not saying that having a great stamp collection or getting a good golf handicap is going to make your life worthwhile. But at some point you are going to start thinking that it would have been good to have had an interest that kept you amused and contented for hours, rather than all that rubbish TV you watched. So here are some suggestions that may start the ball rolling.

1 Write a book in your spare time. Just two hours each evening and you will have one completed in six months. I now have several under my belt and believe me once you get started it becomes addictive, these day’s I write amusing fiction stories.

2 Learn to play an instrument. I purchased an old guitar and a book on how to play one hundred popular songs with just ten chords. People keep asking me to play them something; it is great for a sing along.

3 Be an extra in a film. With a little research on the internet you can find projects requiring extras. You don’t need qualifications and even get paid if they don’t finally use you.

4 Start a Blog on your favourite topic, look for others on Face book etc that share your interests. Invite them to comment on your blog in exchange for doing the same on theirs.

THINK SIDEWAYS

I have nothing against stamp collecting or train spotting or even golf; I wonder who thought of hitting a small ball over a mountain and then spending the next half hour looking for it. However search your soul for something different, what would you really like to do? I remember always saying that I had a book story in me but never believing that I would really do it. I suppose that the idea of all that actual writing and then having to find a publisher would be too difficult. Anyway one evening I started and then never stopped, I had found something that I really wanted to do.

IT IS DOWN TO YOU

Next time you find yourself staring at the TV screen and realising that you are just looking at banal TV, just for the sake of something to do, get up and turn it off. Find a bit of paper and start writing. It does not matter what about, pick something you hate and get angry about it. Choose something that was funny in your life and describe it, invent your perfect meal or describe what you would do if you won a million. The subject does not matter; you are just turning the rusty cogs and getting the creative train moving. Like just about everything in this life, it is all down to you.