“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.” ― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
My writing, however, tends to stop right after its first terrible effort 🙂 I have realized over the course of “writing” this blog that I have steadily veered away from actual writing and willingly substituted it with photography, another great passion of mine. Note, I said ‘passion’ as I am by no means a professional in that realm. In a blog post, ages ago, I talked about my fascination with words and books and now recognize that I have relaxed in my efforts to express myself appropriately in the written form more often.
In order to right this wrong, I am imposing a writing exercise upon myself for the month of March. Much like the NaNoWriMo method, only I am not writing a novel, so I couldn’t come up with a cool name for this effort. I still haven’t figured out the details but knew that I should post it publicly somewhere before I talk myself out of it—something I do with ease at the initial presentation of a difficult task, mostly associated with going to the gym 🙂 I picked some books off my shelf to help jumpstart this process. Don’t mind the Goodwill stickers on my book. If you have the addiction I do to books, you know that buying books could become quite an expensive affair! So I try to keep my addiction costs low, much to the relief of my husband, who believes we have more bookshelves than any other type of furniture in the house. And, he is right.
This will be my third time reading Muriel Barbery’s Elegance of a Hedgehog, and I am not ashamed that I used another excuse to read it again. It is that good! Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird is one of my favorite books on writing and one of the first ones I had read in my Creative Writing class. My professor made those words jump of the page and into my imagination. Don’t you love when a teacher inspires a passion in you? Isn’t that what teaching is all about?
I will quit rambling and only say this: Please do not be upset if, every once in a while, I write more and use less (maybe one or two less) photographs in my blog posts. If I don’t do this, pretty soon, and I mean, sooner than I think, my writing will be reduced to one-line descriptions of photographs. You get the picture.
Cheers!
Yolanda.
*UPDATE: Right after this post, I decided I would write 1000 words daily on any topic that comes into my head. Right then, a topic and three of the first lines creeped into my head. Right there, (I like using the word ‘right’ right now) I pulled up a blank page and fired off everything I could think of that I wanted to say on that topic, drawing inspiration from childhood memories. I stopped when I was done. 45 minutes. 1200 words. First draft and first assignment complete! How cool is that?
*UPDATE: Right after this post, I decided I would write 1000 words daily on any topic that comes into my head. Right then, a topic and three of the first lines creeped into my head. Right there, (I like using the word ‘right’ right now) I pulled up a blank page and fired off everything I could think of that I wanted to say on that topic, drawing inspiration from childhood memories. I stopped when I was done. 45 minutes. 1200 words. First draft and first assignment complete! How cool is that?
