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 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...]
Day 145: Talent
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...]
