It’s no secret that I’ve always wanted to be a writer. Beyond what you see here in my blog, I mean, and certainly in a more professional and coherent manner. Maybe even with less profanity.
Or not. I mean, let’s be realistic. This is ME we’re talking about.
Over the years I’ve made a few attempts to get my proverbial “write on” but every single attempt fell completely into the half-hearted category. I have never submitted an article to a magazines, for example, despite requesting the submission guidelines for pretty much every popular magazine in North America. The envelope arrives, I read the guidelines and.. well, that’s it. That’s the end of the tale.
A few years ago I took a course that was specific to writing queries, building a story and submitting it to a periodical. The course was enjoyable enough, and I definitely learned a few things, and then.. nothing. End of that story, too.
I love to write but I am scared shitless to do it in any manner other than this very, very, very casual blog. Around here, I can skip the spell-checker and barely bat an eye at horrible grammatical errors. I can swear and use all manner of slang and post photos of things that have nothing to do with anything.
Perhaps my readership would increase if I was able to stick to one topic in my blog or if I spent more time with the post in draft before I hit “publish”. Then again, perhaps not. There are about 100 of you reading this on a daily basis, according to my stats counter, but I honestly and truly have no idea WHY you’re here unless we’re really good friends and you’re curious about what I did on the weekend.
Coffee is my biggest cheerleader when it comes to writing. When I email him at work with an “I’m so bored!” complaint, his first suggestion for entertainment is that I should sit down and write. Something. Anything. A story or a poem or a big ol’ blog post. And, generally speaking, it’s a pretty good suggestion. I like to write. I lose myself in writing, sometimes, but lately my writing has started to lose ME, instead.
Is it my ego that stands in the way of my inner author? I am not so good with the handling of rejection, to be honest, but I don’t think that’s the issue.
The problem is that I just can’t imagine that anyone cares what I have to say. I’m a 32 year old woman living in a small city. My hobbies are reading, writing and napping. My life experiences, though varied, feel as though they’ve been hashed about in a thousand different ways already. They bore me. I am not known for being on the cutting edge of anything, either, so I can’t start writing about how the iPhone changed my life or why the “skinny jeans” are flattering on some obscure body-type.
I am not ready, however, to simply let my dream of writing disappear. Instead, I want to try to reframe it somehow. And I’m hoping – maybe? – you’ll assist me with this little project.
For the next month (August) I’m going to ask you to give me a subject. Any subject in the entire world other than math (because math makes me cry in a very stereotypical girlie-manner that is MOST unbecoming). Pick something that interests you even a little, or something you’re an expert about, just anything that comes to mind. Make it silly, make it serious, make it whatever you want.
Using my mad research skills, I will compose an essay-ish creation and post it here on my blog.
The idea is that I’ll stretch my brain out of this holding pattern of writing about my rather mundane life AND I’ll get to learn something new in the process.
If you’re willing to help, I’ll be most appreciative. Not only that, but I’m offering a prize to the person who sends me the subject that makes my heart sing the loudest – a completely subjective thing, of course.
Feel free to leave your topic in the comments or email me. Either way, we’ll get this party started and I’ll find out once and for all whether I’m capable of writing something other than these little blog posts.
Hit me with your best shot.
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Write about colour.
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Write me a story about finding exactly what you want and need right inside of yourself.
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Before I give you the subject of my fancy… just a quick note to say RUN DON’T WALK and get thee a copy of “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron and don’t take it from the library… buy it, because you will be writing in the margins!!! LOL
That book changed my life. It unleashed the creativity within and unblocked anything I use to think held me back from writing.
You are already hypergraphic, and that’s half the battle. You write more than anyone I know, including me, and I write hundreds of thousands of words a year. Probably closer to a million.
Kay. That being said.
Here is my story idea. I always wanted to write a short story with this theme, but I am not much of a fiction writer, and I know you will do it justice.
The story about how someone is going to commit suicide in exactly 24 hours and they don’t even know it yet. In fact, they are going to jump from the 110th floor of a building. Obviously, it’s Sept. 10th, 2001.
I always say you NEVER know what the next 24 hours holds. Never say never about ANYTHING. You could be doing something in 24 hours time that you never dreamed was possible.
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I’ve always been curious to read a story about an oracle that people can go to to find out their exact day of death. Participation is voluntary – if you want to know, ask the oracle, if you don’t, then don’t ask. I would like to hear the story about two people – one who chooses to know, and how knowing changes them; and one who chooses to live out their life without the benefit of knowing their expiry date.
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Jo: On Sunday or Saturday night of this weekend, we’d actually been discussing the hypothetical of if one would stay in the building with the heat and fumes from a burning office and jet fuel vs. jumping out of the building.
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HA! Apparently Am and I are kind of morbid.
I suddenly have an urge to start singing Depeche Mode’s “Fly on the Windscreen”.
Coffee: I am fascinated by the 9/11 jumpers. There is a documentary you should download (it’s easy enough to find online) called “The Falling Man”. They explore the whole concept of the ‘jumpers’ and why it was so particuarly hard for people to handle that day. It blows my mind how one day you could be living life normally and the next day you could be jumping off the 110th floor. In what world is THAT the best solution? Crazy!
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If you’re going to pick a topic, then I’d suggest you write about something that you might consider submitting for publication….. Some suggestions:
- Write an article for one of the Canadian small business magazines on how small businesses can use various Google tools for email (with their own domain name ), calendaring, etc. for a fraction of the cost it would cost to do it themselves.
- Write a review of a recently released CD or DVD that you really liked.
- Write an article on net neutrality in Canada.
- Write an article on the MTO licensing offices, how they work, who runs them, who monitors service quality etc. and then submit it to the local paper. Make sure to mention Judy!
- Write an article WRT Canadian papers, magazines, etc. that will accept unsolicited articles and your our experiences writing and submitting articles to these media outlets. You could write it as a serial, part one could be about figuring out who accepts articles, part two could be about deciding what to write about (I assume for this part you’d do some research on the kinds of things that get published in those papers/mags that are accepting articles), part three could deal with actually writing the articles, and part four could deal with the submission process (both emotional and physical) and the outcome of your submissions.
Failing all of that, help me find an ISP in Toronto that sells reasonably priced, reliable broadband internet service to residential customers that includes a static IP address. :-)
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These are all very good ideas. If you think of any others, please please please leave another comment or email me! (I love smart blog friends!)
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Write a further adventure for a favourite character from someone else’s novel or create a store around a new character in a familiar ‘world’.
This can be a fun way to compare your writing style with the styles used in your favourite stories.
Kate (here via Andrew’s blog)
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Write about the progression of a woman’s body fat percentage throughout her life.
(Can you tell I’m dealing with my formerly thin thighs?)
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