Category: Write

What Are Your Creative Writing Inspiration Sources

There are books that I enjoy and there are books that I love.
When I want to do some creative writing I tend to dip into a piece by one of my favourite authors (sometimes that can be a TV show or a movie) to get that fix, before I start.

My “Get Jazzed About Writing” superstars are…

Which Creative Challenge Is Best For You?

Creative Challenges are great for shaking up the routine, forcing you to be creative every day or every week, and flexing those imagination muscles. What is a creative challenge? National Novel Writer’s Month is probably the most ambitious and famous creative challenge: write a novel in a month (November). The idea is to challenge yourself… Continue reading Which Creative Challenge Is Best For You?

Barbarians At The Gate

I wanted to write a new story but I didn’t know what to write. Once I had my specific audience in mind, though, all it took was a few minutes of relative quiet and a few rows of knitting, to get the ideas forming in my brain. The problem now, is not so much getting… Continue reading Barbarians At The Gate

Love

Round, frozen, hard, white. Watery now, shedding your ice. Patting, drying, there-there. (Heating butter, adding garlic, a dash of oil.) Take a teriyaki bath, there you go. Scrubba dubba. Time to come out now! Lift you, Sea Scallops, gently out of your tub. Thrust you into the searing, flashing, firework pan. Scorch your edges. Throw… Continue reading Love

Little

[audio:http://www.julieduffy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Little2.mp3|titles=Little] When I was 15 I worked in a bar for three hours each Sunday, clearing glasses and making coffee, for 1.25 an hour. I had a boyfriend and I used to meet him on Saturday afternoons. I would catch a red council bus (0.45 each way), all diesel fumes, red vinyl seats and poor… Continue reading Little

Snow Delay

[audio:http://www.julieduffy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/snowdelay.mp3|titles=Snow Delay] Snow delay for the kids today. It was barely worth it for a dusting. There was no policy for this when I grew up. Here, now, everyone knows that a delay means the day starts two hours late, A snow day means everything is canceled but work. Growing up, there was just snow,… Continue reading Snow Delay

Back In The 1980s, Kids…

[audio:http://www.julieduffy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/legwarmers.mp3|titles=Legwarmers] Yesterday I bent down and slid legwarmers over my feet for the first time since 1985. Instantly, I was 13 again; in my bedroom in my parents’ house, faintly worried. Will I look stupid? Is my hair right? Will he notice me? Where’s my electric-blue eyeliner? But these were a modest brown, not the… Continue reading Back In The 1980s, Kids…

The Crazy Uncle

Every family has the crazy uncle, right? I had two. One related by inclination, the other by marriage. Growing up I saw one almost every weekend, the other much less often. I miss them both. One was witty and daft and completely off the wall; kind and generous and possibly quite brilliant; more like my… Continue reading The Crazy Uncle

Conflicted

I want a fresh start. Isn’t that what the New Year is supposed to be all about? But it’s not. It’s half way through the school year. It’s a third of the way into a work commitment. It’s almost seven years into one son’s life, five for the other. It’s us on the way to… Continue reading Conflicted