On Writing

I have been doing NaBloPoMo for a few years now and I really enjoy the challenge.

I like writing.

I LOVE writing.

But there are times in life that writing doesn't love me back.

Maybe if I read more it will be easier?

Maybe if I read about WRITING more?

Maybe if I stay away from reading?

You know, if life was simpler.....

If I was smarter......

If I was more organized.............then I could write.

Witty! Funny! Hilarity!

Thousands of readers and random people quoting me to me!

Sponsors! A book deal! (Clearly my goals are grounded.)

But it just doesn't come together.

Why?

Well, sometimes I am unorganized.

Sometimes life NEEDS to be simpler.

And other times..............???

I have a book my mom got me called "The Pocket Muse" by Monica Wood.

She thought I might find it interesting.....helpful.

It has all kinds of prompts for writing-mostly fiction but for other styles of writing as well.

Also contained inside this little book: other ideas for writing.

Tips.

Suggestions.

Encouragements.

And I read something that made me realize part of my problem:

I was leaving the room.

From "The Pocket Muse:"

"I once heard a college student in Waterville, Maine ask visiting writer Ron Carlson how one knows if one is really a writer. Ever the showman, Carlson delivered an entertaining riff about the distractions writers put in their own way all day, all the time: leaving the room to get coffee, check the mail, get coffee, walk the dogs, go to the bathroom, get coffee, look something up, get coffee. Then, dead serious, he summed up the whole enterprise in a line I have never forgotten: 'The writer is the one who stays in the room.'"

To my friends who write-and to me.....

{Be the one who stays in the room.}