Tips and wrinkles.

What is the best bit of advice you've ever been given? Who gave it to you and when? Do you live by it?

Ask a few of your friends and family for the best bit of advice they got and why? Ask who gave it to them?

You'll get some fantastic answers and if you have enough pieces of good advice you could compile one of those little books of helpful ideas.


What's the worst bit of advice you have ever had? Who gave it to you and what happened when you followed it?  There's another little book in the making but more of a dark book or tragic comedy.

What bit of advice do you give. Have you ever taken it yourself?

The best bit of advice I had was written down. It said .....to love life is to love many things....I think that's true. The advice I give people is to accept yourself as you are and forgive your limitations. Good advice or a cop out?..

Music.

Music is a big part of our lives regardless of who we are and where we are from. As a writing exercise choose two or three pieces of music that are important to you. Play them if you can and then immediately after write notes about the memories they invoke.

Can you make these recollections into a story? This may involve standing back from the memories you have evoked and writing about yourself as a fictional character.

Try writing continually for five minutes about your music and what it makes you think of. Write  stream of consciousness.

Could you write a poem of any style made from your recollections?

If you wrote about all the songs that have formed a soundtrack to your life you might have a novel...


I'm thinking now about Kung fu fighting. It always reminds me of a fantastic holiday I had as a kid.