Poor TB is sick again. He's got a temperature, felt nauseous, and has already thrown up. He has really been having a time of it this year. I'm not sure if he's picked up a virus or if this is a reaction to the medicine again or just what. I keep thinking soon, soon, soon he'll feel better and all this pain and misery will be behind him! He's also been trying to figure out how to add smiley icons to our journals. We'd like to have them for our entries and guestbook.
TB's also added a bulletin board to our website but I'm not sure what kind of board it should be.
I'm a day late, but I'm underway now with a writing project that will hopefully yield a 50,000 word novel. I have a goal to write around 1600 words a day. I didn't make that yesterday so I'm thinking there will be days I'm more creative than on others and will make up for yesterday.
I don't want to reveal too much of the story idea except to say it's a variation on the haunted house theme. I'm determined to do this. If I can discipline myself to write consistently every day then hopefully I'll be able to work on my other ideas rather than let them languish in my Word closet.
How do you feel about your own writing? What are your strengths and weaknesses now? Have they changed since you began journaling? How? Why?
I'm always happy when people tell me they enjoy my writing. Sometimes I sit back and wonder what it is they like so much. I've been a frustrated writer for years, well, since childhood. Part of it is a lack of self-confidence and part of it is just focus. If I sit myself down and shut out all distractions, I can write. Yet, I always think oh, there's nothing special about this story. It's been done before. That's the lacking bit of self-confidence.
Once I actually got published. When I was in third grade I began writing all kinds of whimsical stories. One was about a talking black-eyed Susan that arrived on a magic carpet and swept the little girl heroine off to fantastic places around the world. That's all I remember about it except ... my teacher told me proudly one day that she sent the story to the paper and it was published in the Sunday magazine.
The teacher was surprised that my family hadn't seen it. My dad worked for the Long Island Press and he usually brought home that paper. I don't remember my parents reading the paper much, though. I think the teacher said she would bring in a copy for me.
I was thrilled. I went home and told my mother. She got really angry with me and told me to stop lying. That hurt. I don't know if I confided in the teacher or what, but she ended up giving me the printed story and I took it home to show my mother. She was sorry and I can understand why she'd doubt some kid's story would end up in the paper ... but I never forgot it.
My strengths are my imagination and, I guess, my "way with words". My weaknesses: self-doubt and lack of focus. The weaknesses get in my way but on days when I get kick them out of my path, the words just flow like water from a spout.
I don't think journaling has made any impact on my writing. It's always been easier for me to keep a diary. I just sit down and let go. I'm expressing my feelings and experiences and using the first person narrative. I don't worry about grammar or spelling. I tend to write a whole lot more when I journal.
Hey, maybe if I wrote my stories in first person and pretended they were the characters' journals ... :)
Posted by Cassie at November 2, 2003 05:40 PM