MUSINGS ON WRITING FROM A FIRST TIME BLOGGER

MUSINGS ON WRITING FROM A FIRST TIME BLOGGER

“I love it when I write well, but I love it when I write period.”  Julia Cameron

I am one third of the way done with this challenge.  Writing for this challenge has been about writing period.  Moments of inspiration and grace do slip in through the cracks when writing well spills out.  My goal, though, l through this challenge is to write between 400 and 600 words a day and let go of the need for perfection by putting the words, still blemished, in my blog for others to see.

The rewards of this practice have been unexpected.   Writing for the sake of writing, not beholden to a final product has been freeing.  It has gotten the word out there…Ready or not—like a summer game of hide and seek--I can’t find the perfect hiding place because the time is up.  And the game continues.  I give myself a limited amount of time (the only time I have) and the writing is done.  For now . . . as writing is never really finished.

I am writing in a daily way and noticing the world in a different way.  As I walk down the street, or speak to a stranger, or have an unexpected feeling of love or sadness, I am observing and seeing my world as possible stories.  My awareness of stories has increased. An awareness of the significance of small events has created a space of gratitude unexpected.

Recently I responded to another blogger who was hunting for a story during a morning walk.  She did not see the story in various parts of nature she described and then saw it in a bigger-than-life neighbor who was out to play a round of golf.  The writing was delightful, yet I am reminded that in any part of any day, with awareness and observation, stories appear.  And seeing the stories makes life a richer place.  The stories were in the bland of the winter landscape and the snow laced with winter’s unraveling.  Those stories, for that writer, just weren’t recognized.   A gift for me in this challenge has been in seeing of the stories.

Another unexpected reward has been my delight in the range of writing that has emerged in my daily time to write.  My writing is clear and to the point (which I know best), yet it also takes form in writing laced with poetic images, or playful ditties that move around in my head, bursting out on paper, me wondering where that came from, to the soulful meanderings of the places of importance in my life, to writing about a craft that I love—all are emerging in this first attempt at blogging. 

Disciplining myself to have the time and space to write—something I thought would be painful—has brought pleasure.  There is joy in being disciplined in establishing a writing practice.  I am rising from bed at 5 am to write because I know that if I don’t, I won’t get to it.  I wonder where the words will come from, somehow in the 45 to 60 minutes allotted to writing before I get ready to go to a school, and a thought, an image, a story unfolds on my screen and I begin my day having birthed an image that would have stayed dormant without this discipline.

Finally, a most unexpected pleasure has come from responding and getting response.  I really thought that when starting this blog, my words would go out into cyberspace, mulling around, unheeded and unnoticed.  Isn’t that the way with blogs?  That’s what I thought.  To my sheer delight, I was wrong.  I love the feedback I receive on a daily basis and I love giving my feedback to others.  I write, I publish and I respond to at least three others in the morning before I leave for the day.  And I respond to more before I end the day.  And in between, my writing is celebrated by fellow writers with urges, comments and self-meanderings as connections are made between the words and the writers. 

Yes, unanticipated rewards have come from this new-found discipline.   Writing—period allows me to live well.  And that has made all the difference.