Thursday

I Have Come to the Realization...

that I have been going about my writing the wrong way. "What do you mean?" you ask. Well, while reading The Everything Creative Writing Book the other night, the first chapter really struck a chord with me. One topic in particular was "Tools of the Trade" where the author, Carol Whiteley, talks about "Reference Materials and Writing Medium". This one is what got me to thinking. Carol talks about how "in this day and age, you have three writing options available to you: a computer, a typewriter, or paper and pen." There have been many times that I have sat at my computer table staring at the monitor with brain lock thinking, "what do I write?" As with many other things in my life, my writing has gotten lost in the shuffle. Although I love technology and my computer, using the keyboard to do my writing just isn't my thing. Yes, I know. This is something I should have realized earlier but better late than never, right?

My writing began at the young age of 6 or 7. Way before I knew how to spell, way before I learned the rules of grammar, and way , way, way before the age of computers and technology. We're talking about late 70's here. i would sit with notebook paper before me and a pencil clumsily held in my hand just scribbling away. It was at this age that my first poem was born. I wrote it as a gift for mom, and she still has it to this day. Maybe one of these days I will be brave enough to post it for you to read.

As I grew older, so did my desire to write. Even if it was just to copy teen magazine articles to paper, I had to be writing. There were many short stories that were began but never concluded. My uncle somehow managed to find one that I had been writing about a haunted house. He was disappointed to hear that there were no more pages to follow the story.

My poetry writing blossomed during my teenage years. It was nothing to be sitting on the front porch with a notebook in my lap and spilling out a poem from my pencil in about 5 minutes time. I wrote many passages of teenage crushes, my dad, and anything else that inspired my creativity within to come forth. After my first marriage, my writing was silenced by the day to day living. I never worked at trying to keep it going. I'm not exactly sure why. All I know is that I shoved it into a dark corner of my mind where it lay dormant until this newfangled age of technology exploded onto the scene.

Welcome to the weblog. I had dabbled in blogger and MSN Spaces in their early beginnings but deleted those places. I have hopped and skipped in other platforms such as tripod and iuplog and back to blogger, then deleted all of it, and have rested at MSN Spaces and blogger yet again. I've never understood this quirkiness about not being completely satisfied with something and having to need things completely new. I have learned over the years to not question it anymore. Hopefully I can keep this quirk in check and keep the one I have. With the coming of Windows Live Spaces that should satisfy my need for "newness" for awhile with new stuff to play with.

I'm guessing that I was blinded with technology and got stuck in the frame of mind that in order for me to be able to write I had to use the computer which is so not true. I began with paper and pencil in hand, and it is this way that I shall continue to write. The only difference now is my hand and fingers wanting to cramp, but that's nothing that a simple break won't cure.

If you have managed to read this far, then it is here that I must thank you for allowing me to have a moment of your time and share my thoughts with you.

Later

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Pen and paper is still my preferred way of writing. I do transcribe afterwards to my PC, but nothing beats the basics.

There is an author (I can't remember...she was up for a Giller Award), who overcame the "blank computer screen" paralysis by simply turning off the monitor and typing blindly. Tempting.

Good stuff!

Matt