The Day "One Day" Arrived

 The view from my desk this morning.

Last fall I read a novel that stirred my need to write back to life. (In case you're wondering, the novel  was "Full Disclosure" by Dee Henderson.)

2013 was a year that I took the time to really read. As everyone says, the secret to writing is reading. But I hardly wrote anything last year. The need was still there, but I denied it from surfacing. I hear the voices of my old teachers, the dean of my college, and my Mom telling me, "You NEED to write." My reply has always been, "Oh, maybe one day." The voices are there and the days have turned into years. I'd like to be done saying one day.

After a year of keeping a collection of quotes from writers about writing, I made a promise to myself. I promised myself that I would begin writing again when spring came. I aimed at reading books by writers about writing, going through resources on writing, and taking the time to write and edit and process things through the exercise of getting alone to create with the written word.

If writing is something you're passionate about, it's something very difficult to deny. Even when you're not writing, the words and stories and observations are there. Everything you hear and see and do are there in your mind being summed up, the words rearranged over and over again until they sound just right.

This week over on her blog, Megan made a similar commitment to herself. For now, she's chosen three prompts from a book called "Old Friend from Far Away" by Natalie Goldberg.

I'll be using my blog as an outlet for my attempts with the prompts that Megan chose. They'll be marked "Old Friend from Far Away" or OFFA.

Megan and I have very different lives, but the truth is, there is a soul in us which is very much the same. It's a soul moved by words - written and read. It's a kind of soul that I've seen in other people too.

Even though my room is still a SHAMBLES ( the current contents of it include a shop vac, extension cord, ladder, stuff draped in sheets, no light fixture, etc.) I moved a table in yesterday so that I will have a place to keep all my notes. I read and write EVERYWHERE, but I really like having a place to keep everything undisturbed. I put the table near an outlet and positioned it so that I can look out the window. I am ready to begin!

With that, my "spring writing challenge" will begin on Monday. Hope to see you then!

February 17: What's been on your mind? What have you carried and gnawed over? (OFFA, p. 154)
February 24: Tell about periods where you haven't read. What were you doing? Where and when do you read best? (OFFA, p.160)