Writers Block

You know there are people who define themselves as 'academic' or 'creative'? If you're academic you're into things like history, politics, maths, etc whereas creative people or more into art, music, media, etc - totally generalising and stereotyping here so forgive me for my rudeness! If I had to put myself into one category I would probably lump for academic because I am much more into my politics and history than art or music but one thing I do love is creative writing. Followers of the blog will probably already know that one of my current uni courses is Ysgrifennu Creadigol - creative writing. In Welsh.

My course is assessed by the submittal of a portfolio (worth 100%) of about 50-80 pages, I am currently at about 25 and the deadline is March 1st. Uh-oh. You might be thinking to yourself that I have nearly a whole month to go yet, as that it is what I was thinking at first, but I have to allow time for work to be looked over and allow time for my work to be bound professionally not to mention that being creative takes time, for me at least. I am essentially using this post to moan about my uni work. It's like procrastination but I'm getting something done! 

Welsh is not my first language. Although I have no problems speaking Welsh informally and have been taught through the medium of Welsh for almost 3 years that doesn't change the fact that I still naturally think in English and that I find it easier to be creative in English and I have, in fact, been told by a lecturer, after having read one of my short stories, that I need to think in Welsh when planning/writing my story. Much easier said than done. Welsh is also painfully different to English (though I think English looks like a funny language after having studied Welsh for so long) and so a lot of extra work is necessary to write in the language effectively. Purely just to get my camera out, I have taken a picture of the things I require when writing creatively in Welsh:

We have (going clockwise, starting with the green book):

• A Dictionary of Welsh and English Idiomatic Phrases - a rather important dictionary for idioms or sayings, for example we don't say 'raining cats and dogs' in Welsh, we say 'bwrw hen wragedd a ffyn' which translates as 'raining old women and sticks'
• Y Thesawrws Cymraeg (The Welsh Thesaurus) - useful for creative writing
• My black book, it has all my poetry and story ideas and is, of course, private!
• Sweeties - can't write without some sweets!
• Welsh dictionary - there are some words I just don't know!
• Y Treigladur (The Mutation Dictionary) - I won't explain Welsh mutations as it would probably take a post of its own. I'm fairly confident with my mutations but just I keep it nearby just in case.
• Yr Odliadur (The Rhyming Dictionary) - I am terrible at making poems that rhyme in any language, it's too strict a poem for me but I have it just in case I fancy it
• Pa Arddodiad? (Which Preposition?) - Lots of Welsh verbs come with specific prepositions so if I don't know the particular preposition I can look it up
• You might also have noticed the apple, I'm eating loads at the moment and in the corner is Mwmi, a cushion/teddy thing which has nothing to do with creative writing

I find that all these books hamper creativity a bit and besides all that I am known for my lazy attitude towards work and as you can see, there is a lot of effort involved. 

Anyways, I had better get on with my writing (sigh) but thank you for taking the time to indulge me in my self-pitying moment of procrastination. Diolch!

Liam x