On Writing

I'm taking a six week class at a local art school for Writing and Illustrating Children's books. That said, I'm not positive I want to write Children's books. Though I don't particularly like children, I know I'd love to write something. I also know that in six years of motherhood, something close to a dozen ideas for children's books have pounced on me. So, hey. Why not?!

Don't ask me about the Illustrating part. I'm trying not to get too worked up over that. Rumor has it publishers know some illustrators anyway, should anything I compose ever get that far...

The first day of class, the instructor quickly brought up something that stuck with me. He said that being a writer, any kind of writer, comes with a certain level of fear and vulnerability. Anything that you write inevitably exposes your thoughts or feelings about something, and you are therefore made more vulnerable with the exposing.

I've not had much hesitation here in blogland, where really I imagine my onlookers are dear pals or relatives, but thinking about anything else I might write... even just for this class? Yes, it's a little intimidating. Though I've not put much thought into why, I think with his statement, my class instructor answered the question I never asked. There's a vulnerability to it that feeds the eternal adolescent concern: but... what if they don't like me?? What if NO ONE likes me??

Fortunately, the instructor, after pointing out we would all become vulnerable with one another, did come to soothe the tween-agers in us by reinforcing that writing should be something that you do for you. Instead of looking for acceptance or fame or fortune or notoriety of any kind, it should just be an individual journey that the writer enjoys.

As I pursue this next writing adventure (wholeheartedly or otherwise), I will try to accept my vulnerability and work to just enjoy the act of writing.


So, did you like what I wrote? Did you? Did you??

By the light of the wolf moon

How about that big fat torch lighting up the January sky tonight?! It has drawn me back here to my doodley writing like a porch light draws a weary traveler in through a dark and lonely wood. It is a brilliant sight.

I have to admit that I've resisted 2010. Many of my friends were happy to see 2009 pass into history. I, on the other hand, was indifferent to the year change until it actually happened. Then I was quite certain it was a mistake. We should have skipped this year. Maybe slept through it in classic Sleeping Beauty/Rip Van Winkle style, simply missing it.

There seems a greater than fair share of hardship and tribulation going on right now for so many around us. Friends are struggling to afford housing, or struggling to conquer unemployment. Some are struggling to cure their cancers, preparing for, or healing from, surgeries. There has just been an ambiance of strain since pulling out the new calendar for the coming year.

So much so that... well, I think I needed this blazing wolf moon, to remind me that even in the dark the world lights up. Like the brilliant moon, this new year hurts a little when i look directly at it. Still, there are things to celebrate, like moonbeams reflected from snow covered mountain tops, or moon shadows that stretch out across the frigid winter lawn.

Into 2010 we dive. Let's see where the full moons lead from here.