When I was 27 years old, I was writing.  It was January or February 2002.  I recall a couple of weeks I spent immersed in a book I was writing. I was writing fiction.  It was childish, and possibly would have bored others, and showed a naive viewpoint I had at the time, but I was writing.  I was at one time completely immersed in my story for weeks.  I probably lacked any kind of proper story or plot, but I could write and did write.   I am now 49 years old.  22 years have gone by in which my writing of fiction slowed to nearly nothing - occasional attempts to reapproach the craft, nothing much more. Oddly enough, I continued to be able to write poetry, on and off over the years.  But I  wanted to write fiction and somehow ... couldn't. Or didn't. What happened nearly 22 years ago?  What happened immediately after my cessation of dedication or ability to pursue this craft? March or April 2002.  Oppression.  Nothing more, nothing less. This was when it stopped.  And now that thi...

I have been struggling a lot to work out a routine with regular writing practice.  Blogging has helped, and I have some posts incomplete and in draft form that have allowed me to continue to write creatively on a more regular basis.   That said, I really would like to adopt a routine of regular fiction writing which will allow me to practice fiction itself, including all of its elements, in bite-sized pieces.  Ideally I would be able to practice putting each plot element together, creating characters properly, crafting dialog, and breaking out my inner thesaurus to say things more eloquently than I am sometimes immediately inspired to, and I will be able to do this regularly, in small pieces, so that each practice piece can be a completed entity from start to finish that can be tested, analyzed, improved, and perhaps (eventually) even published to see how well (or badly) it does and then continue testing. I found a course on Flash Fiction.  Let's see how this goes.

Books on the subject of the craft of writing encourage one to write every day regardless of whether one feels like it or not.  In almost the same breath, the authors of these books sometimes seem to tell me that I must write with joy. So my question is this: why would I destroy a story that is important to me by working on it as a matter of discipline at times and moments when I am not inspired and not writing with joy? That said, it's no good to simply say, "well, I don't feel like writing today. I'm not inspired.  I'm supposed to write with joy. I have no joy today. Bullocks.  I won't write."  Yes, writers of books about the craft of writing, I understand this does not work either.  I understand that in order to improve my ability to write I must write every day whether I feel like it or not. My solution to this is simple.  I will write as a discipline, but when I write as a discipline and for practice at times in which I am not prepared to write my ...

I want to talk a bit about this blog and a small but obvious epiphany I had. So, the thing is, I want to write stories.  I have wanted to since I was a little girl.  I've had stories and pieces of stories rattling around in my head since the 1990s.  I have incomplete pieces written on scraps of digital files throughout multiple folders, drives, and even old disks that used a technology I may not be able to access (but I digress)... Life has taken me on many various adventures and into so many various nooks and crannies of the Earth and the universe that I will not attempt to take this up here and now.  Suffice it to say that writing has been a challenge.  Not just having the time, but getting into the right (pun!) mindset and into what people sometimes call the "creative flow" (trite, I know.)  It seems that I am always between one emergency and the next, one time sensitive or pressing/stressful matter and the next.  And when I finally do have some time in which I could (...

There is something I noticed. I've been advised in various writing books (such as those by Stephen King and Chris Fox) to set aside a time and a place for writing every day.  Various criteria are given as to how to chose the location, how long to write, and so on.  This is not the subject of this post ... what is written in those books can be found in those books.  This is about what I observed about myself. Yes, it is difficult to write when I am working in the same space as another human being, particularly one who frequently interrupts or randomly interjects communication when I am mid typing, resulting in a situation where my creative flow is lost. That is not the only issue though.  How did I discover this?  By trying. First thing in the morning, when I am alone, and said person is sleeping next door, I still don't feel like writing. When I am away from home alone, staying in a hotel room, and said person is on the other side of a great ocean, sleeping peac...

  It has been a long time since I updated this little blog, but I would like to assure you (future or imaginary reader) that I have been “being good” at keeping the promises I made to myself, where writing is concerned. No, I will change that to “doing well.” The term “being good” implies too many characteristics which I neither possess nor want to possess.  I have been doing well at keeping the promises I made to myself. One of the promises I had made to myself was that I would write everyday with some exceptions for travel or emergencies.  The writing could be short, it could be long, it could be in the form of a voice memo written down/recorded for later transcription, or it could be in the form of notes taken on my phone.  The writing may be done as a voice recording while I am mid the task of makeup application, or while I am out walking.  (When I do voice recordings during walks, I sometimes try to pretend to be talking on the phone, but people still look...