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Debbie | Behind Shoji Doors's avatar

"feeling like a tourist in my own country" I know that feeling!! And I'm slowly grasping the concept that not EVERYTHING I write needs to be shared 😅 which is kinda similar to your theme in this post. Thanks for your thoughtful post.

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Alice Kuipers's avatar

Thanks so much, Debbie. I feel like that tourist often, now. The country I left behind exists in my imagination. xox

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Maria Hanley's avatar

What a lovely perspective. It makes me realize how hard I can be on myself, thinking that my abandoned stories, along with the ones that have been simmering for years, are due to my lack of attentiveness. Maybe they're not ready, maybe I'm not, or maybe that's all they're supposed to be. Thanks for opening a new window for me, Alice. Fresh air!

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Alice Kuipers's avatar

Thank you, Maria. Sometimes, I like to think about the unfinished stories as pretty stones on a beach. Something I've picked up and placed in my pocket just for me...

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Writer's Corner's avatar

I am in favour of the idea that the stories we never finish are important too. Who could say that they are not. They only play a different role in our life as a writer. Creativity I think thrives on a richness of ideas, preferably more of them than we can elaborate on. And the most important story, that of our own life, will never get finished.

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Alice Kuipers's avatar

It's taken me a long time to learn this, but I have had so much pleasure from the unfinished stories and they've all taught me something...

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Holly Starley's avatar

Alice! I so know what you mean about visiting, in my case, my hometown, being like walking in the story you didn’t write.

And as a writer, yes, all those not quite finished stories.

✏️🪽

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Alice Kuipers's avatar

Thanks, Holly. I feel like I glimpse myself, but a version who never existed, perhaps the one who wrote that book about Canterbury...

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Claire Fitzsimmons's avatar

Reading this made me feel so much better about the books that I never wrote. “A dragon named Alice’ will also have a place in my heart like your Sky Baby☺️

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Alice Kuipers's avatar

I LOVE that title. And who knows, we may come back to those stories, or they'll remain as stepping stones to the next idea. I enjoyed replaying Sky Baby in my mind as I wandered around Canterbury. The idea everything has to be finished to be complete is perhaps not true?

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Claire Fitzsimmons's avatar

Titles are everything aren't they? Maybe they are the most fun thing to write. Maybe some creative projects exist in fragments and some fully formed, and that's ok.

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Melissa Lee's avatar

Lovely to have your words in my inbox once again Alice. That photo is stunning, I feel like there are a thousand stories that could be told from that one image! And thank you so so much for the mention 😊🌿💚

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Alice Kuipers's avatar

I love taking photos! In another life, I might have been brave enough to be a photographer!

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Melissa Lee's avatar

😊

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Keris Fox's avatar

Thanks for the mention, Alice x

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Alice Kuipers's avatar

Thank you for all your work recently! Always very grounding and helpful.

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