On Tuesday 18th July I will be on a local radio show.
I was interviewed by my friend and former spoken word mentor Dane Cobain (yes that is his real name) for his show on Wycombe Sound.
The broadcast will be at 7pm (19:00hr) UK time where I will speak about my writing, the last book I read (Lee Hall will get a plug) and poetry.
I have also sent some soundtracks of me reading some of my poems.
Two of the poems I wrote especially for the broadcast but i don’t know as yet which will be used.
Anyway it was interesting to be interviewed, it was good to speak to Dane whom i haven’t seen for a while as you get an opportunity to reflect on why you write (there is a poem with that title in my new book, plug-plug!!!
I hope that you will get an opportunity to listen and if so post me some comments.
AI is a field of technology that involves the creation of intelligent machines that can think and act like humans. AI has the potential to revolutionize the world of technology and the way we live our lives.
AI is an interdisciplinary field of study that combines computer science, engineering, mathematics, and psychology to create intelligent machines. AI systems are designed to be able to learn from their environment and adapt to changing conditions and circumstances. AI has been used in various industries, including healthcare, finance, education, and transportation.
AI is used to automate tasks that would otherwise be too complex or tedious for humans to do. By automating mundane tasks, AI can help to free up human resources and allow us to focus on more important and creative tasks. AI is also being used to solve complex problems that require a high level of intelligence, such as medical diagnosis and robotics.
AI is rapidly becoming more advanced and is being used in a variety of applications. AI is being used in robots that can perform tasks that were previously impossible for machines to do. AI is also being used in self-driving cars, medical diagnosis, facial recognition, and even in the stock market.
AI is an exciting field that will continue to evolve and revolutionize the way we do things. AI has the potential to solve many of the world’s problems and open up a whole new world of possibilities. As AI continues to progress, we can expect to see more AI-enabled products and services in the future.
Today, artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the world of writing by enabling machines to write blog posts. AI blog post writing is becoming more and more popular among businesses and content creators because it is an automated way to publish relevant and high-quality content quickly.
When it comes to the actual process of crafting an article, AI blog post writing can be divided into three steps. First, AI algorithms understand the blog topic and research relevant information from a large database. Then, the algorithms construct an outline for the post, modeling it on successful articles by following existing templates. Finally, AI uses natural language processing (NLP) to generate content that is readable and engaging.
AI can be used to make the content writing process more efficient and consistent. AI is perfect for high-volume articles that don’t require significant creativity, as it generates all the elements of an article quickly and accurately. AI can also suggest changes to existing content, which saves time and effort. Furthermore, AI-generated content is designed to target specific audiences, allowing you to deliver more relevant and engaging blog posts.
AI blog post writing has a lot of potential – but it’s important to remember that it’s only as effective as the data that’s fed into it. AI is not a substitute for the human touch – it’s a tool that makes the writing process faster and more efficient. When used properly, AI can significantly reduce the time and effort needed for content creation, leaving you more time to focus on other tasks.
AI can analyze data and store information in a much faster way than a human can, allowing it to produce blog posts that are more focused and which require less effort to create. AI can write blog posts that are tailored to the needs of a particular audience. As it looks for patterns from different sources of information, AI can adapt its content to different audiences, write better titles and feature the most relevant information within a post.
AI can write a blog post in less time than it takes for a human to do the same task. This leaves more time for marketers to focus on other important tasks. Additionally, AI-generated posts often include relevant keywords, making them easier to optimize for SEO purposes.
AI can also be programmed to learn from its mistakes. As the technology evolves, AI can be trained to make corrections to any mistakes or errors it has made in the past posts. This means posts written by AI will become more tailored to the readership over time.
AI is becoming an increasingly important tool for content marketing and copywriting, helping marketers save time and create more personalized content for both search engines and readers. AI can generate blog posts quickly without sacrificing accuracy or relevance, allowing marketers to focus on other tasks
Open mic night can sound like a daunting experience, but it is actually an amazing opportunity to showcase your talents and find your voice in the music world. Whether you’re an experienced musician or a complete rookie, open mic night can be a great way to learn, grow, and have fun.
For the uninitiated, an open mic night is an event where amateur and professional musicians get together to perform music in front of an audience. Generally, performers sign up ahead of time, and then take turns entertaining the crowd with their song and/or instrumental choices.
The beauty of open mic night lies in its flexibility. The performers can be as creative as they like, and mix their own music with traditional covers. Most open mic nights are free of charge, and it’s a great way for budding musicians to make a name for themselves. It’s also a great way to get feedback from an audience and find out what is working and what might need tweaking.
Open mic nights are also great for established musicians. They can use them as a platform to test out new songs, or just to have fun with different musical projects and collaborations. It’s also a great way to network with other musicians and explore new ideas.
For those who want to take part in an open mic night, the best way to prepare is to practice your material beforehand. Make sure you know the words and chords for whatever songs you’re playing, and that you’re confident enough to perform in front of an audience.
Open mic nights can be an intimidating prospect, but for those brave enough to take the plunge, they can be incredibly rewarding experiences. They’re a great opportunity to learn, grow, and have fun, and can open up a world of possibilities for budding musicians. So don’t be afraid to sign up and show off your talents. You never know what might happen!
As writers we all want to know what people think of our work. Whether that be when we are performing at a spoken word or when we have written and published our books
“Receivers are not just passive absorbers of messages; they receive the message and respond to them. This response of a receiver to sender’s message is called Feedback”
Many of us always hope to hear something positive about what we are doing, and psychologically positive strokes are good for our ego and can spur us on to carry on creating.
However, is that fair on us that we may be getting (or seeking) positive feedback telling us we are great but in reality, we may be going the wrong way, or we are not making improvements, so our previously fresh work becomes stale or samey.
the answer is choosing who we get our feedback from.
if we ask our friends and family directly “what did you think of that” you are most likely (but not always) going to get a variation on how great it is even if there are glaring improvements to be made. The feedback can be very subjective.
To go off at a tangent for a moment, when a microphone and a speaker end up repeating each other, then the screaming is intense and very off putting which is just like receiving poor ‘feedback’
When giving or receiving feedback, the three things that I find useful are
Why it helps you/ me
How to do it
How to feel confident about doing it
Feedback is not about criticism but about being critical. It is the piece of work or performance being looked at.
Below is some feedback I have been given by a fellow poet for my new book.
How giving feedback to others helps you
They get to hear what’s working already, so they learn about their strengths. They also get your suggestions for how to change it, and so they can improve that poem. Over time, they can use this feedback to develop their skills and knowledge.
Every time you do this, you also help your own writing.
You can learn as much from giving feedback as you can from receiving it. When you give detailed feedback, it means not only that you’ve engaged with a poem deeply, but also that you’ve thought about many ways in which the poem might be improved.
For example, when commenting on a poem, you might think about:
How do you feel about the poem?
What is the overall meaning of the poem?
Are there parts where too much is being said?
How well is the poem structured?
What about the line breaks and sentence rhythms?
Are there parts youdon’t understand?
Are the images and word choices fresh, exact, exciting?
Does the voice sound authentic?
It’s really good to practice all that, and it will help you apply it to your own poems later.When you look at our own poems, you tend to see what you think is there—even when it isn’t!
You have an idea of what you wanted to say, and you probably believe you’ve conveyed it—when in fact your reader may be utterly confused!
Or, you may have said what you wanted to say many times more than you needed to, and the poem needs a lot of cutting!
Both of these problems, and others, are hard for you to see—that’s why getting feedback is so helpful.
But what can you do when you want to redraft a poem and feedback isn’t available?
At moments like that, the time you’ve put into other people’s poems will come to your aid.
The more you’ve looked with clear eyes at the poems of others, the easier it becomes (though it is still always hard) to apply the same objectivity to your own poems.
You may see yourself making the same errors you’ve seen in a dozen other poems—so you can correct them
You may also see yourself getting things right—which is always pleasant to feel!
You may even be able to imagine yourself reading your poem as if it were someone else’s, and hear what feedback you’d give yourself at a writers’ group!
So, by helping others, you’re learning a lot more about helping yourself.
You may read someone else’s work using a form or technique that’s new to you and feel inspired to try it yourself.
The success of a really good poem may fire you up to try do as well or better, which is useful motivation!
How to give feedback to another poet
Everyone likes to hear some reassurance to begin with! So, find something you like in the draft and tell the writer what it was and why you liked it.
While it can be nice to hear “This is great!” or “I loved this!”, feedback that only says that doesn’t help a poet improve their work. Find something specific that you like in the piece – an image, an imaginative word choice. Tell the author what it was and why you liked it. Then they have a good idea how they can repeat their success in another poem.
After you’ve praised, you can move on to parts of the poem that you think need more work. Again, be as specific as you can, and also say why something isn’t working for you. This gives them insight they can use to redraft their work. If you can think of suggestions for what else they could do, then throw those in too! At the end, remember that the writer took a risk sharing this poem with you, and that deserves respect. So, finish off with some wholehearted appreciation, telling them how you are glad they shared, and why.
To summarise,
Tell someone something you liked about their piece of work
Offer any thoughts of things that might improve it from a reader’s point of view
Share the overall positive thing you gained from that person sharing the piece
How to get confident about giving feedback
If you’ve never given feedback before, you don’t have to start with a long comment! Just give a brief Praise Sandwich. You can build it up as you learn more.
Whilst you can make suggestions for how the poet might redraft their work, you can just say what you liked and what worked less well for you. When you get more experienced you can add more detail, but don’t start that way.
Giving feedback is a skill that gets stronger with practice. The more you do it, the easier it gets. So, take as many opportunities as you can!
I acknowledge that I used some of the text from this blog on feedback which I have found useful for feedback to colleagues in our writer’s circle
Just a quick blog about a performer I watched on Thursday.
Prior to the pandemic I used to go to the Music and Words Club in Windsor where (as per the name) there were performers who wrote and performed their own music, songs, poetry etc.
Thankfully it has returned and have been a couple of of times.
I have been fortunate to be invited to have been featured a few times on the bill and also as a guest performer.
This time the featured artist was Bity Booker and like every featured artist it is usually a great experience.
I hadn’t heard of her before but saw that she had a presence on YouTube Twitter and Sound cloud.
When she started to sing I was amazed as she had a completely different sound to what I was expecting.
This was a good experience. The sound was ethereal and I tried to categorise what she reminded me of.
There was a Kate Bush element but also a folk feeling. But it just wasn’t just her voice, it was her stage presence that entranced and drew you in. She was singing for you!!!
I bought a cd but also checked out Spotify and listened multiple times on my journey to and from work.
I then listened/ watched YouTube just to complete the experience.
As a writer it has made me think and that is part of the work of a performer
Not only does Bity Booker orate her words, she also illustrates them.
An excuse monkey will therefore be defined as a procrastinator who seems to have a monkey on their back and that is who they blame for not getting on with things.
However this isn’t why I started to write today.
I looked back on my last blog and have continued to write various pieces which I think I will put in my brand new, new book.
This isn’t a typo as I have new book which about to be published on Amazon (more about that later) but I will need to make a start on the next one.
Some more good news!!
We have celebrated my daughter (and son in law’s) wedding.
The local drama club have managed to perform their pantomime (late due to Covid 19)
We have survived COVID 19 infections in various family members.
I am feeling less pessimistic which is helpful as it means that I feel able write a bit more.
The new writing group has continued to meet and we have had some more people join us. The tasks have challenged me (for the positive) so for one, I took a risk and wrote a rap based on marriage.
I am seen as a mid 50’s rock loving guy (well I admit to listening to other stuff too) but RAP music is not normally in my ‘wheelhouse’
My weird inspiration was, whilst listening to Spotify I heard Buddy Holly and then Eminem in succession. These are not the usual combinations I listen to but I then put some of the words on paper/ my phone.
I initially shared what was written a fortnight ago and then wrote more ideas based on the constructive thoughts/ feedback (not harsh criticism) received from my fellow writers.
I then performed this rap at the latest Spoken Word (The Innerverse) on Weds 29th and was given very positive feedback from the ‘experts.’ I plan to perform it again and this time I’ll do it much better!
Four weeks ago I took the plunge and delivered a workshop on Limerick Writing which stimulated others to write further limericks. Because of this I had to write a few new ones to share at The Innerverse. Again this was received very well. Nowadays I am being introduced as the “Limericks Expert” but I feel I have imposter syndrome about this but it is nice to know that I am able to share my knowledge/ skills to fellow writers.
I also spoke about contranyms which I illustrated by this old joke I DIDN’T share at the above wedding.
“When a man doesn’t have a partner he is incomplete, when he gets one, he is FINISHED”
A contranym is a word that can have opposite meanings dependant on the circumstances.
“To dust can either mean to add or to remove dust”
As I mentioned before, I have put the final (well almost) touches to my latest book.
Two years ago, my son in law wished me a happy birthday with the words “Joetry in Motion” and used the throwaway comment, that would make a good title for a book.
Well that is what I have used, so thanks Lee Hall (www.leehallwriter.com ) who is not the Lee Hall who wrote Billy Elliot.
I will publish the book over the next few weeks so keep a look out for notifications and hopefully you may want to purchase a copy.
Let’s see if I can keep up this effort and write something on this blog next week!!
I just have not had the urge to write for ages. Well that is not strictly true, as I seem to be able to write a few poems and perform them at The Innerverse or at a new open mic that has opened up in my village.
I think what has happened is that the pandemic has robbed me of my urge or my routine to write every week.
I hope that now life is a little freer although I remain careful that my creativity will return.
Last night I attended a writers circle with a couple of people who I know.
it was newly set up and whilst there was only 5 of us, we shared a lot about our styles of writing, our influences and our likes and dislikes.
We all shared a piece of writing in progress and were offered praise and critique which in my case I found helpful.
We have a prompt for next time which I have started to put some words and feelings down on paper (well in my phone).
I have hopes that this will put me on an even keel again and I will be able to share my self to help others
The maxim you only get out what you put in applies as I like to feel useful as well as learning
Sometimes you just have to get on with it when an ideas comes into your head.
I haven’t decided what kind of novel writer that I am because this is the first time that I have attempted to do so.
In my fantasy mind, I saw myself ‘splurging’ the words onto the page and all the ideas neatly forming paragraphs. I would then go back and edit.
The reality is that as I have written I have had so many ideas that I have had to stop and make a plan.
One tip I took on was to write the whole story in 100 words.
you then break the sentences up and write 100 words or so around each sentence.
I found that I could do some of this for some sentences and others just remained sentences.
I realised also that my story spanned decades with ‘flashbacks’ or explanations so I had to do a timeline whereby I worked out the age of each character at various parts of other characters lives. As wrote, I added to the timeline to ensure that I was able to ‘remind myself.’ I also have realised that I should have done ‘ biographies’ of each character which I could then use/ alter as I wrote.
Luckily this is informing me what sort of writer I am.
I am disorganised but am able to take myself by the ‘scruff of the neck’ and organise myself.
However you need to be able to have an initial outline of the story written down which you can then follow/ change as your book evolves. You should also keep a note of your influences (songs, tv programmes, pictures) so that you ensure that you are able to ‘describe’ the feelings they elicited for your writing. Some of my influences are songs I heard on the way to work which have ‘filled out’ the feelings of the characters’ or just formed part of the timeline of memories to describe the mood.
You need to remind yourself occasionally to check that some of the lyrics of the songs have not turned into chunks of dialogue to prevent plagiarising popular artists and getting yourself into trouble.
My immediate reflection so far is there is no formula for being a successful writer, or hard and fast rules. sometimes you may need to stop, take a deep breath and then review. you may be on the right track but retracing your writing steps may help you to find some beauty which got ignored as you rushed in.
So far 9 chapters named, an outline written, a timeline, idea for a cover. the book has 10,000 words which will be divided up again into the chapters.
When I have written a bit more I will share the title and the ‘blurb
I was also invited to a birthday party of a fellow spoken word artist.
In normal times that would be a bit of an anti-climax by me writing about it.
In these times, this was a journey, out of the safety of my home and into a pub.
I was surrounded ( following covid restrictions ) by fellow musicians and poets whom I hadn’t seen for such a long time.
I was also afforded the luxury of being able to perform a few of my new poems live and at a safe distance.
As it had been my birthday a few weeks before, I was able to reflect on growing old(er) and being a bit of a pessimist- the poem is more interesting than the way I am describing it.
I also read a poem that I had written for International Nurses Day 2021.
Prior to the Zoom performance and the live performance, I had sent this poem to the Director of Nursing within the Trust I work in.
I was given positive feedback and it may be ‘published’ on the staff intranet for others to see.
As I have mentioned before, I have a new book published.
To celebrate this occasion, I have decided that for 4 days (8th April 2021) my first book, Mild Musings May Mitigate My Mentality, can be downloaded for free for 4 days from Amazon on Kindle.
For those of you who haven’t had an opportunity to see or hear my words, help yourself!!
I am asking you for just one favour/favor.
If you choose to do this, all that I ask is for a review.
Reviews, both positive and not so good, help me with the writing process.
Hopefully you will like the poetry so much that you will read one of my other books.
If so, then tell your friends and retweet/share on your social media.
Joe the poet 