I love this quote: "Lots of people have talent, darlin'. But look how many people throw it away. It boils down to this: having talent is not enough. You also have to have a talent for having talent." - Ruth Gordon There are so many people whom we come into contact throughout our life time that can have unbelievable talent but they either have no interest in pursuing that talent or simply don't have the drive. My brother comes to mind with this. My brother has a learning disability called … [Read more...]
Day 144: Drinking, Bloating, and Not Writing
In life, there can be so many distractions from husbands to our children to our families to our jobs to our things to do around our house to the church we might be attending to the things we do in everyday life to even just ourselves. I'm sure if I were to ask any of you the distractions you face on either a daily, weekly or monthly basis, I'm sure we'd have quite a few. For myself I know I can come up with many. I think my biggest distraction is myself. It seems like I can come up with a … [Read more...]
Day 143: Marriage vs. Dating
This is a fantastic quote when it comes to writing a novel: "Starting a novel isn't so different from starting a marriage. The dreams you put on these people are enormous." - Ann Patchett Have you ever thought of the novel your writing as a marriage partnership? That you and your novel, for a time, become one as you sit down and write out all the details that will make it complete one day? I hadn't until I read what she wrote for today. It is a partnership of sorts. We will spend many hours … [Read more...]
Day 142: Writers with a View
Have you ever just sat and looked out your window at the world around you and thought, "Wow, that could be a story"? When you're a writer, the world around you can always be a story. I was talking to a friend the other day and she was telling me about the drama that was going on with a friend and her life and I told her, "Wait, that's totally a story." And thing is, what she told me is so bizarre that it really could be a story. I think when I'm either looking at the world around me or talking … [Read more...]
Day 141: Poetry for Your Table
Sometimes the words we speak or see can be that old saying, "Poetry to our ears." It's not so much the words that are spoken as much as the meaning behind them. I think that has become more evident for me now than any other time in my past. When I'd read a book, it was just that, a book. Don't get me wrong. If I read a book it's because I enjoyed it. However, now, those same words take on a different meaning for me. When put together just right, they can seem like they are poetry to our … [Read more...]
Back to My 365 Day Writing Journey
Well, being apart of NaBloPoMo was kind of exciting. I loved being able to come up with the different topics on 'serve' throughout the month. However, my 365 Day writing journey is going to take more of a priority so I'm back to that now. Over the next several days the topics for my journey will be: Day 141: Poetry for Your Table; Day 142: Writers with a View; Day 143: Marriage vs. Dating; Day 144: Drinking, Bloating, and Not Writing; Day 145: Talent; Day 146: The Sliver of Ice; Day 147: Themes; … [Read more...]
Day 140: Making Soup
I love this quote: Stories are what show up on the page once you start hitting the keys. —LARRY MCMURTRY Isn't that the truth? Whether it's nonfiction or fiction, the stories we decide to write about won't happen unless we take that first step to get them written down. And when we do this it's like we're making our own little soup story. I think back to the day when this website was born. I'd been told by my mom for a while to write down my thoughts and share them. It's good for you. I didn't … [Read more...]
Day 139: Your Road
When I think of this I think of the old saying, "The road less traveled." In life we have a road that we travel and then at different points we come to a spot where we either stay the course we're on or turn off somewhere along the way. Who know at the time whether it was the right or wrong decision or if another way would have been better. However, sometimes we come to the end of the road and we have no choice but to either go left or to go right. We don't want to but the choice has been taken … [Read more...]
Day 138: Writer Panic Attacks
When something hits me and I have to write it down, I don't know that I'd called it a panic attack in the sense that I'm hyperventilating and having a hard time with things around me. It's more that in that moment, whatever feelings I have floating around inside me are like they are begging me to get them written down. That first year after Mari died, I had a lot of those moments. My grief could consume me and they fought to come out through the words I typed out into my computer or my journal. … [Read more...]
Day 137: Mileage from Childhood Fears
Many things happen to us throughout our childhood. Some good things while other not so good and for some they hope they never remember the really bad things. No matter who we are. No matter how we were raised. We are who we are today because of how we grew up. Our childhood shaped and molded us into the person we are now. I think back to when I was growing up. Was there a lot of bad stuff, like abuse? Unfortunately, the answer to that is yes. If I could take away all the abuses, neglect and … [Read more...]
