WHAT TIME IS IT? WRITING TIME

It’s writing time, so pick up that pen, open that lap top, turn on the faucet, and let it pour.

Is it pouring yet? How about now? Let it out.

You’ve made a decision to write, so write.

What’s the problem? I’ll go first.

The biggest misconception with writing, for starting, continuing, and finishing something, is The Class.

“I’ll start writing as soon as I take my class. It’s called Getting Started In Writing.”

The class is about structure, the beginning, middle, and end.

The class is about pacing, flashbacks, the hero’s journey, adding backstory without turning it into an information dump.

It’s about plot, theme, setting, genre, the classics, the masters, and nothing about you or your goals.

The class is offered once. Once a year, once in a lifetime, and it’s always an awkward time.

You’re too busy, too focused on other things, too occupied with activities of normal life.

That’s all here, too, but with a twist. Call it the Insist Twist when you finally decide on the half an hour of writing time you put on the calendar for next spring.

Remember, be insistent.

 

The Way It Works Around Here

First, we get an idea, chase it around, and point it out.

Is an idea good enough to sustain a 750-1000 word blog post? So far, so good.

Does it have a title, a built in guide sort of title, that readers can hang their expectations on?

Now what? Get fired up.

Grab that idea and wrestle it around until it starts making the sort of sense you’d listen to.

Keep at until it feels like it could make sense to others.

(How’s it going here so far?)

 

 

Get a good grip, not too tight, not too loose, and work through the process, the possibilities, until you find the desired outcome.

What’s a desired outcome?

“And they all live happily ever after,” is tried and true. I like a happy ending.

“They all disappeared in a flaming cloud of smoke,” kind of kills the notion of a sequel.

“She turned out the light,” is abrupt.

“They walked away,” can go either way.

 

You’ll Know When The Idea Hits Right

The right flow, the right call and response, the right chords and melody, the uplifting feel of getting something right, making something as good as you can?

Now it’s hitting right.

Dots are connected, t’s crossed, i’s dotted, paragraphs introducing new elements, sentences built with the important stuff up front and not stashed just before the period.

You feel the liftoff, the launch, the weight shifting below you.

You’ve written, you’re a writer, and that’s enough. BooYah.

For a moment you share with every writer in the history of personal expression a question:

Why does it matter?

My regular answer: It either matters, or it doesn’t.

If it matters enough, you write; if not, you don’t.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some technical issues to work on the rest of the day.

 

 

PS:

If you’ve ever looked at a blank page, a blank screen, and thought, ‘I could do better than that,’ you may be a writer.

If you’ve read a page full, or screen full, of words and thought, ‘I could do better than that,’ you may be a writer.

You’ve done it, haven’t you, the same as you’ve done after watching a movie. You could do better than that.

 

PSS:

No one could be better than this: How you feel this year, month, week, day; how you feel this hour, this moment.

Give us a play by play in detail while weaving in the subjects you want to focus on after we get to know you.

If the reader doesn’t know you, they won’t care and won’t read.

So how do you want to introduce yourself?

Hello, I’m your average, every day, baby boomer blogger in Portland Oregon, blah, blah, blah, click.

That click was an attention span shutting off.

Or,

“BoomerPdx strives to relate daily events as a way to create better outcomes and fewer misunderstandings.

“Compared to Mark Twain, influenced by Kurt Vonnegut, a fan of Ken Kesey.”

 

That’s a wrap for today. Remember to vote.