Wednesday, February 17, 2010

On Writing

It’s Wednesday already? Time for a new blog post, but I got zip, zilch, zippo. Sigh.

One of the reasons I started blogging, in addition to writing about things that have been on my mind for years… or weeks… was to jumpstart my creativity, get the juices flowing, try out something new besides journalistic writing or fiction… yada yada yada.

More sigh.

I think it’s going around. A brilliant writer friend of mine… truly brilliant… feels like writing is becoming ‘old hat.’ Since this person also makes gentle fun of my ‘old lady’ clichés (my husband chides me for my ‘air quotes’…I can’t win!), let’s substitute ‘clichéd.’

I’m rather fond of air quotes. So there.

Since I was about ten there’s nothing I wanted to be more than a writer (well, okay the mother of ten children and a musical comedy star came in a close second and third).

My ‘dream job’ in my early 20s would have been to be a writer on SNL… you go, Tina Fey!

Words are my vocation and my avocation. I love words, books, newspapers, cereal box copy… you name it. And I love wonderful words written by others. It’s like one great big word love fest.

Except of course when the words won’t come, when the ideas stalemate, when the punctuation snarls and growls.

Scary.

Still we writers persevere. We have to. We sure don’t have any other marketable skills.

So for everyone out there who shares a passion for the written word… whether as reader or writer or often both… don’t let the passion burn out.

5 comments:

  1. This is why we are friends, isn't it?

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  2. Yes. I miss you very, very, very much. Just because I'm a lousy correspondent doesn't mean I don't read every word you write and marvel at your spirit of adventurousness and your fortitude. Did I spell adven...right? ;-)

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  3. Is that your latest book cover? How cool is that? Sigh . . .

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  4. I do beleive you did write something? ;)

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  5. Really could identify with loving words. Even cereal boxes. I've heard writers will read anything and it's true. When I don't have a good book on my desk, I'll read old magazine stories over and over - don't tell anyone but I've been known to read my husband's WV Market Bulletin- the paper put out by the agricultural dept. where he underlines all the farms in WV that we are going to someday buy. Sadly, I think the time for moving back to WV is over. We're only two hrs away and that's probably as close as we'll get. I love all your blog posts - please keep writing. I can just see you gliding yes gliding across the ice with Dorothy! AND I love the way you wear your hair...

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