Melinda J. Irvine

Five days and almost one full work week into the new year and I’m writing with a gusto I’ve never before experienced. All the while a thing stands at my mind demanding attention. Ted Hughes’ ‘Thought Fox’.

For the past year I’ve been transforming this blog into a writer website in my efforts to build a viable writing business and livelihood to support my life with Jerry in the Philippines. More prose, less posting and much, much less poetry.

‘You’re killing us’ speaks Ted Hughes’ ‘Thought Fox‘.

And it’s working, slowly. My latest rejection letter (email) from another poetry journal arrived on Tuesday; and my nights are filled with reading how to write persuasive marketing copy, my days optimising meta-descriptions.

“You’re destroying” us say Thought Fox.

But I love both sides of the writing. I love the poetry. I love writing copy. I love playing with the textures of word sounds. I love crafting the perfect SEO lead sentence.

But the more SEO paragraphs I seem to write, the more dust settles on Ted Hughes’ Poetry in the Making; and Marlon James A Brief History of Seven Killings; and C.S. Lewis’ The Magician’s Nephew. How do you keep both sides of the creative fire burning and still have time to play What’s the time Mr Wolf with your 9 year old?

I haven’t of course seen Ted Hughes’ Thought Fox, I have my own noises which talk me out of things and prod at my sanity. I guess every creative experiences this pull. And push.

The money or the box.

© 2018 Melinda J. Irvine

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• Daily Post: Viable
• I’m part of Post A Day 2018
• Location: Estancia, Iloilo (Philipppines)