I think of books out there like A Child Called It or Go Ask Alice and how either the person who wrote it, how'd they do it knowing family secrets would be revealed or how did the person who allowed Alice's journal to be published how they felt about revealing all this girl's most private thoughts when she was alive. They probably did it for the same reason as I'm telling Mari's story that by sharing their most intimate details of what happened in that person's life that somehow maybe they might … [Read more...]
Day 154: It Takes What It Takes
Do you have the mentality that no matter what happens in your life that you will do what it takes to succeed at whatever you are doing? I think many of us do and then many of us don't. It's the "I won't give up" way of thinking. I'm sure we've all heard a thousand times how this successful person or that one had received however many 'no's' before that final yes finally happened. It's what makes us stronger. It's the refusal to give in to failure or rejection. If we were all to just give up … [Read more...]
Day 153: Writing Your Own Marathon
There are so many times in life where we just feel tired, exhausted and just don't feel like doing anything. And it's not that we don't have anything to do. It's that we just don't feel like doing anything. Our brains feel like mush. Our bodies feel like they are spent. Yet, there we are with that niggling feeling thumping us at the back of our minds telling us we need to do something. If we are a teacher it might be grading or planning out the school day. If we are a composer it might be the … [Read more...]
Day 152: The Eleven-Day Marathon
In life there are times where things are at a sprint. We must get them done as soon as possible. The urgency is critical. So we put in all our might and effort to get done whatever it is as soon as possible. At the end we are exhausted, if not physically, most definitely mentally. Yet, we have a sense of accomplishment for being able to have done it to begin with. However, what about those things that take a long time to complete like getting a new business up and running? Or maybe a new house? … [Read more...]
Day 151: Walking Away
In life sometimes there are things we want to do so bad, and then we start to do them only to find that about two-thirds to three-fourths of the way through what we are doing isn't anything like we'd thought it'd be. As a result, we realize we need to stop without finishing. Has this ever happened to you before in your life? It has with me, only I realized this when I had completed the full first draft of Mari's book. The book I'd written was a complete biography of Mari's life as well as some … [Read more...]
Day 150: Forgetting How to Write
I think we all have times in our life where we go down a road and then forget why we did so. This happens to me all the time when I'm talking. I'll be talking about something and while doing so I end up explain something that came up and by the time I'm done with this new thing I've completely forgotten what I was talking about to begin with. My train of thought can get derailed so easily. Maybe our minds do this for a reason we can't understand. Or maybe we just have a great forgetter as my … [Read more...]
Day 149: The DVD in Your Head
Whether you are a writer or not have you ever had an idea that just goes round and round in your head until you do something about it. As a writer, it might be your story and your characters constantly talking to you. Or maybe a scene that is playing out before you. For me, I've relieved what happened to Mari in the hospital more times than I can remember. It's something that's always there and can easily be brought to mind. I think it's because it will forever be apart of me and is embedded … [Read more...]
Day 148: Intimacy
When some thinks of intimacy, they might think about those who are married or couples. However, in some case, it's within yourself and being willing to open yourself up to others about you and your family. I love what Barbara Abercrombie wrote about intimacy: "I want to read writers who have the courage to let me into their lives, who are open and intimate. If they've gone to the trouble of writing a book or an essay, I want it to be emotionally true; I want the details, the nitty-gritty, … [Read more...]
Day 147: Themes
When we write, do we have a theme we write about right off the bat or do we just start to write and have no clue what that theme is. Most of the time when I'm writing on this site, I have no clue what the theme will be when I begin to write my thoughts down. It's not until after I've written everything down and then thought about what was just written I realize what that theme was. It's how I decide to come up with a title. On my 365 day writing journey, the theme each day has basically been … [Read more...]
Day 146: The Sliver of Ice
As writers, we tend to write about what we know. We take things that happen in our own lives and somehow use them in what we write. for myself, this is true in that I'm able to take all of the good and the sad, tragic, hurtful or a combo of them and use them to develop my writing that much further. When I was writing Mari's memoir, I took the very updates I wrote when she was alive and I have used those as my notes for her memoir. When those were written, they were fresh. Many of my memories … [Read more...]