I have not contributed to my own blog for over a month. I am not sure why. Maybe I am a cross roads in my life. Maybe I should be a commedian. Me at a cross roads at age seventy? I have to be kidding myself. I started a journaling class at age sixty-eight and some how came to the conclusion that I wanted to be a writer. I started blogging.
In fact I have started and stopped several blogs. I am never quite satisfied with where they take me. Does it really matter what name the blog has? Does it really matter the format of the blog? I think those things do not matter.
What really matters is what I write. I chose to respond to prompts from diffferent sites. I found "Sunday Scribblings" and "carry on tuesday" to be fun and I really enjoyed the other writers and their comments.
However, even though I found the "prompts" format fun, I felt that I was not really being a writer. We as bloggers really like the comments that others make. I think we end up not really reading what is being said but reading to leave a comment so they will come and comment on what you have written. At least that is what I found myself doing. There is nothing wrong in that and you can create a good base of readers but it takes a lot of time and effort and at least with me it distracted from the reason I really started to write. I continue to read some of the blogs I found interesting but comment only sparingly. My favorite bloggers is "Linda May". She is from Australia and her blog is simple but beautiful. She has no pretenses and writes from her heart.
I also like "To Write is Right" by gretta James. She is a retired school teacher in N. Carolina (I think). Her blog is also from the heart. There are other blogs I check in on from time to time but mostly I have stayed away fror the blogging world.
The best blogger and writer I personally know is my writing instructor. She writes "Purple Sage Post". I have pointed out her blog before but her writing is worth refering to again and again. I do not get grades from her class so I am not telling you about her to make "brownie points". I have been told that if you want to write well then it is important to read writers that write well. Amy writes well.
Today I was inspired to write in my blog again by none other than Amy in her post "starving artist" posted on March 6th. This post is well worth your time but the paragraph that inspired me was as the following:
"It is only in my memoir workshop with some writers well into their eighties that I find genuine satisfaction. Not just because of the writing that comes out of it, but because I realize when I am with them, that withering is a choice. A choice they have not made. Ripened to perfection, they feed my creative soul and inspire me."
I am absolutely amazed that our class means so much to her. I am elated that she could write this. If you were ever to meet Amy you would understand that she is truly interested in her students.
When I read her blog I notice that many times I am the only one to comment. I have a hard time understanding that because I am always in awe of what she says and how she says it. I have learned a lesson from Amy about writing and it is not about content or context in writing.
It is about the nasty world of writing. You can be a very good writer and never get noticed and you can be a lousy writer and get a book deal. It's about who you know and luck. Like I said, Amy is the best writer I know and never gets any notice or applauds about her blog.
I have another acquaintance that is a horrible writer and got a book deal. His luck was that he was taken in the "Bernie Madoff" rip off. He knows a lot of people in the New York City literature world and they were able to get him big bucks to write a book that
reeks like a three day old dead body. (no names or references to protect me)
I can only fall back on what I hear over and over and that is " a lot of good writers have been rejected thousands of times". You need to keep on writing.
OH, and "get off your woeing jag and write something"
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