Should I, or Shouldn't I?

That is the question I ask myself all too often, especially as it relates to entering writing competitions.  One answer to my constant questioning is the fear of not measuring up, a crack in my character left there by my mother's constant "you can't."

After all, I'm a grown up now, even a great-grandma, so I should be able to get past that one. But there's also the lingering doubt that I probably won't win so why waste the time.  Good point!

However, isn't it also good practice to write and try submitting pieces?  Isn't it worth my time to find out what others think of my writing?  Well . . . oh, stop that!

Yes, I should try and what if I'm rejected, lose the contest, or just don't measure up.  The bonus in this whole exercise is that I will have had some practice.  And doesn't practice make perfect?  We need to put that idiom to work in all this.

And I know this.  Taking piano lessons starting at age six, it was literally drilled into my mind that practice should happen often and with great effort on my part.  Recently, my flute instructor and I talked about the need to practice every day.  Every day?  Yes, every day.

So, if I equate trying by submitting my writing to contests here, there and yon to practicing, it perhaps won't be so frightening.  Forget the part about judges reading your work, the other writers submitting pieces, the silence when you hear nothing . . . after all, it's part of practicing my chosen craft.

Sigh . . . I feel better now.  How about you?


Q4U:  How do you feel about submitting your work, whether to contests, magazines, perhaps for an anthology, etc.?  I'd love it if you shared your thoughts in a comment below.

Photo credits:
Question mark:  www.seemission.org
Practice Makes Perfect:  www.ibxwalkthetalk.com

Why Do I Write??? (Installment 3)

In two previous posts, I've answered this question by stating in the first post my love of words and using them to construct sentences and paragraphs and the impact my father's occupation had on my life.  In the second post on writing, I stated that I write because I have to write.  Blunt statement, and I confessed that. I also pointed out that, for me, a day without writing is a day without joy.  Those statements are both true, and now I want to expand on the necessity of my writing.

As I said last time, I have a story to tell and that's the bottom line for me.  It is my story.  It is mine to tell.  Will it be the truth for everyone who knows me or is related to me?  Likely not.  I'll try to determine the facts as best as I can from those who may know them, but it doesn't mean that we'll each one agree.  Because it's still my story.

Because it is my story, the onus is on me to tell it if I want it to be told.  No one else is going to write my story, unless I hire a ghost writer, and currently I'm not inclined to go that direction.  So, it's up to me to write it down.  Whether it is ever published or not, or shared with family, or perhaps friends, is not important to me right now.  Getting it down as a record is -- I want my children and grandchildren to have the benefit of my story as the threads of our family weave together to create our family story at some point in the future.

So, in this post, I have given you the true reason behind my attempts at chronicling the facts of my life.  I have so many questions about my father's life.  An orphan at age 4, he had few and vague memories of his life.  As we his children grew older, questions weren't easily answered by him of his later years.  Talking wasn't something he enjoyed.  His pursuits were more cerebral in nature, and so I didn't press.  Now I wish I had.

 

If you have a story to tell, I encourage you to consider at least starting a journal to capture your memories, thoughts and facts so that at some point they will be available to younger members of your family.  Add photographs as appropriate to your journal.  And if the bug bites, start writing!

Photo credits:

Top right:  www.fanbois.wordpress.com

Bottom:  www.asp.sg

Why Do I Write??? (Installment 2)

I continue to ponder the answer to this question, because responses to it are many and varied.  Tonight I'll touch on just a couple in addition to what I shared a few days ago. 

As blunt as it may sound, I write because I have to write.  A day without writing something is a day without joy for me.  I never knew that until after retirement and a time when I thought, "I never want to sit in front of a computer again!"

How wrong I was in making that statement.  The sitting in front of a computer that I'd been doing for decades was to type pleadings in a case for an attorney, or to draft up some legal document or another; it wasn't writing for the pure joy of it.

Now, I write because I want to, I enjoy it, and yes, I have to write.  And now you're next question may be to ask for an explanation of "I have to write."

And the answer to that is that I have a story (perhaps more than one) that either needs to be told or deserves to be told.  No one can tell that story but me because it is personal to my life.  Others may be the creation of imagination, but they will also be mine to tell.

If I don't write, will they ever be told?  Likely not.  So, I write.  Sometimes every day, and as you can tell from my recent presence here, not always every day.

Do you have a story or stories to tell?  Have you started writing them down?  It doesn't mean that you're striving for publication, but perhaps just leaving stories for your children and grandchildren to enjoy in the future and pass along to others in the family.

Think about it . . . try it . . . you too may find joy in writing, and then you'll know why I write.

Why Do I Write????

Since retirement, people often ask what I do with all the free time I have now.  I stop and think, and I try to imagine free time!  I don't seem to have much of that even in retirement.  Then I mentally list for myself all that fills my time:  mentoring, writing, flute lessons, quilting, sewing, needlework of all kinds, reading . . . and oh, yes, there's my family . . . children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  Sigh . . . like a young mother with a large brood I suddenly feel tired after that mental exercise.

So, I opt to give a shortened list of the things I truly enjoy, and at the mention of writing invariably the question is, "Why?"  I must decide whether to give the full story or a shortened version.  Today I'll give you the short version, and in a few days I'll continue with the rest of my reasons why.

My Writing Blog

First answer to "why?" is that I love words, grammar, and the parts each plays in creating a story, reporting facts and history, and even in the reading I do.  I just love words and all that makes them a part of anything written.

My second answer is that I love to write those words down, either by hand or on the computer.  I love bringing words together in sentences, then paragraphs to create a gift to someone else of the written word.  How, with all the reading I do, could I not want to give the gift I have received so many times to others?  When I read, authors transport me to places in history, they take me on journeys of the mind, they teach me things I'd never thought about before.  Truly books and stories are gifts to those who read them.

The third reason, and my last for today, is that ink runs in my veins.  That's right -- not blood but ink in my veins.  You see my father, or dad as I called him, was in the printing and publishing business.  From early childhood, I could smell the print shop on him when he arrived home in the evening.  Even when he moved into management, dad loved being "back in the shop" with the typesetters. 

Here he is sitting at a linotype machine in the shop.  He loved what he did, and he had a great deal of his life story tied to printing and publishing.  Some day there's another book to write, I suppose.

Dad was also an avid reader, and together we would read things he'd brought home from work.  Later, as I grew older, we'd talk about them.  I think perhaps that common love we had for printed matter strengthened the bond between us.


So, for today I've begun the explanation of "why I write."  I've never been published, other than on web sites.  No books bear my name as author.  But I continue to write because I love it!

Q4U:  Why do you write?

Let's Get Down to Business!

Getting down to business with this blog hasn't been uppermost in my mind for a variety of reasons, none of which are highly excusable in my mind.  Yet they are what they are! 

If I'm going to write my memoir, I need to stop just toying with it and get down to business!  I need to wrap up my reading on memoir and writing, and put what I've learned to work.  My plan of action is formulating starting with more posts taking place here as potential parts of my draft.  I will still do other writing here as a blog is a good writing practice forum.  So, not all posts will be reflective of my attempt to write about my life or "right" my life in the present.  As I've explained before, my life today is the best my life has ever been; however, there are memories and parts of my life that need to be dealt with in order not to pass those invisible scars along to the next generation.  Thus, the blog title "'Righting' My Life.

I ask your patience as I begin this process, and your input and comments are more than welcomed.  I'm a newbie at both writing memoir and blogging.  Any suggestions and ideas may be left here and will be acknowledged in some way.

Type A Personality and Me

I know it's likely you've probably heard more than you'd care to about Type A personality types.  Well, so I have I and I have to live with one -- ME!  I'm learning that my obsession with detail, perfection and doing it all for everyone is getting in the way of being the me I want to be.  This past year I've been trying to sort out just what the priorities in my life should be.  I think I've come up with a plan, and I'm hoping with the challenges I'm soon to face I will come out the other end successful.

First, I want to give credit to Ann Voskamp for writing the book, One Thousand Gifts.  After reading it and rereading portions of it, I began to see that I haven't been filled with a spirit of gratitude for a long time.  And that translates to I haven't been confronting God on a daily basis.  Confronting not in an oppositional way, but confronting Him to welcome His companionship as I travel this dusty road called life.  He wants to be needed; He wants to know I need Him.  In the process, God leaves me morsels daily of things to be grateful for, and I too have begun my list of "one thousand gifts."  Try it -- it will bring you such joy!

Secondly, a big thanks to Mary DeMuth for her prolific blogging, writing, and spiritual gifts.  Mary's writings are my mentoring source and my encouragement for the writing I want to do.  They are one reason I'm not in this blog as often as I probably should be.  Wanting to be a writer and being one are two entirely different things.  No two writers approach their work the same, and I'm still trying to find my niche.  Mary's works and blog are providing some of that guidance.  But the real killer here is finding time and recently Mary talked about The Pomodoro Technique and how it has helped her through difficult times.  Now, if I could just find the time to implement Pomodor's technique!

Now, I have uncovered and confessed my biggest problem -- time management.  With these tools in hand, perhaps I can capture the amount of time needed each day to do each of the important things in my life.  I need to sit down with Pomodoro's instructions for making a list and executing on it, and I need to ask God to help me as I try to accomplish managing my time.  Asking Him for what I need is one priority; spending time with Him is another.  If I put these two first with my gratitude list as three, I don't think I can possibly fail to make progress.

“Hurry with your answer, God! I'm nearly at the end of my rope. Don't turn away;
don't ignore me! That would be certain death. If you wake me each morning with the sound
of your loving voice, I'll go to sleep each night trusting in you. Point out the road I must
travel; I'm all ears, all eyes before you.  Save me from my enemies, God—
you're my only hope! Teach me how to live to please you, because you're my God.
Lead me by your blessed Spirit into cleared and level pastureland.”
Psalm 143:10 MSG

What I Mean by "Righting"

I agree it is an odd usage for the word and not one we hear frequently.  And yet it seemed to fit a dual purpose.  It is my opinion that during my childhood and through a part of my adult life I was wronged by a parent.  Deep in my soul I feel a need to write that story out in order to find healing for myself and in the off chance of publishing my work.  More strongly, I feel that in writing my story I will also accomplish a righting of the wrongs that worked against me for so long.  It is a painful and slow process, and one I'm just beginning.  I don't know exactly how it will all work out but I firmly hope that in some way my writing might also help you.

As the verse of Scripture above, the Lord has plans for you and for me, "plans to prosper" us and "plans to give us a hope and a future."  Won't you come along with me?

Welcome!

As you can see, this blog is very much "under construction."  I want to write, and so here I will practice that craft.  I want to write about my life, and so here I will offer vignettes and memories of my life in hopes of someday publishing a book or collection of short stories.  It is not my intention to bore you or to tell the stories of others.  I sincerely want to tell my story.

My fascination with telling my story comes from a love of words -- spoken, printed, sung.  I'm the daughter of a printer and publisher, and I've been told that ink runs through my veins rather than blood.  It's my belief that the purpose of words is to allow us to share our stories and memories.  So, here in the next few weeks I hope to begin doing just that.

I hope you will enjoy what I write to share, and I truly hope that if you have comments, you will leave them here for me to read.  Let's even think about becoming friends along the way!