A Ute Picnic

Today I welcome a guest, Lorraine Marwood to my blog - not only is Lorraine a children's author and poet, she is also my mother and it will be interesting to see the parallels between the creativity of craft and the creativity of writing.
Lorraine's latest book of poetry for children, 'A Ute Picnic and other Australian Poems' is released this week into all good bookshops.

What creative things do you do in between writing?

I like to sew, bead, garden, read, make cards.  The first two make a mess - a bit like a draft in writing.  There are so many crafts I'd like to try and that's the same with stories and poems - lots of projects remain UFO's or unfinished projects - so a deadline in writing or a birthday looming for crafts means that a particular project will get finished.  I believe that all these crafts feed into each other and certainly satisfy this strong creative streak I seem to have.  Before I knew I wanted to write in grade 4, I was already making little gifts for my sisters, my mother, my grandmother.  In fact I still have a pipe cleaner doll that I made for my grandmother when I was very young.  I think my skill for hoarding and treasuring comes from her - before she died she passed back that doll which she had kept safe in tissue paper.

My blog site covers sewing as a creative output, is the process of writing similar to craft work?

Yes, there are many similarities in that I have to have a passion to follow a particular idea, to develop that idea into a satisfying story or poem. Of course there are many stories that will not be published and also there are many craft projects that just don't work.  But I believe that any skerrick of writing or any craft work is not wasted in that it leads onto the next project which might be truly successful.

Your book 'A Ute Picnic' is based on years and years of poetry when you were raising 6 children, how did you find the time and discipline to write during these busy years?

That's an interesting question!  Often I snatched time to write and the poems would not be finished but I had an extraordinary passion for keeping writing journals and every partial idea or detail was entered.  For this collection ('A Ute Picnic') I was able to trawl those journals and recreate the atmosphere of an incident or layer the poem further through the details I'd written down, just as if I was viewing the incident for the first time again.

I know my life was super busy, but it was crowded with unique happenings, I had more energy and certainly passion to write, no matter what.  And really it comes down to that - the need to write.

How do you plan and structure your day now that you also have 5 Grandchildren and a busy writing career?

It doesn't seem to have changed that much since I was busy on the farm, I like to write early in the day - I seem to have more focus then.  And on days when writing doesn't seem to happen there are still many hours on the computer catching up with details such as my blog site, web page, getting ready to take workshops, answering queries.

I think many years practice of snatching at writing has paid off.  If I know I want or need to write a poem then after a few drafes I can write a poem I am fairly happy with on that day.  The patterning of years of practice has made a routine for me when I actually sit to write.

My life seems just as busy, although there is less noise and no one else to blame for creative mess that happens.  I believe in having a go, and being constantly surprised by the created piece that results.

Thank you Natalie for letting me explore creativity in another way on your craft blog site.

For more about Lorraine's books visit her website www.lorrainemarwood.com

The blog tour continues tomorrow with a visit to Sally Murphy's blog site www.sallymurphy.blogspot.com