I have been blogging for a little over a month now. It has been quite the experience for me. However, my blog is going nowhere that I thought it would. Is that a bad thing? I think not. What I have learned in this short time is that I really enjoy writing. I have gone from wanting a blog to find others who are adult children of alcoholic parents to just want to express myself creativity. Certainly I can find a way to do both. Or at least attempt this. But it the use of words that I enjoy.
Now I am not saying that I am any good at writing. When I ask people or reasearch how I can improve my writing skills I inevitably hear the word read. Read all you can. Read outside the genre you are interested in. READ! READ! READ! Now this is scary for me. I want to improve my writing. However, I am overwhelmed with all the material presented on how you can improve that I frankly don’t care to read all of it. Not to mention I am not a good reader. Reading is hard for me. So can I improve without reading? I don’t know. Is reading really the foundation to successful writing? Possibly. Most successful authors will tell this to us.
How about music? How about movies? Both of them use words, only they are attached to sound and visual. There are so many beautiful words in music if you just look past the music. I am moved and haunted by music. By just lines in music. “I want to sleep on the hard ground, in the comfort of your arms. On a pillow of bluebonnets and a blanket made of stars.” This is a line from a Dixie Chicks song that I find incredibly beautiful. Even if this is all I look or listen to, I am moved that someone could write something so beautiful in my eyes. Now this is a key point. In MY eyes. Look, I don’t even like country music but for me these words are, well, music to my ears. And that’s without Natalie Maines’ lovely voice. I can find lines in movies that are beautifully written and poignant. In The League of Their Own, Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) responds to Dotty’s (Gina Davis) saying baseball was getting to hard by saying; “Its suppose to be hard. If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great!” If I could only write something so powerful. And it doesn’t hurt how perfect an actor delivers such a line either.
Where am I going with this? I have absolutely no clue. What I know is this. I understand I can’t change the world with words. I understand that I probably will never get published or sell a script. But I can dream can’t I? I ever wrote about my dreams in THIS post some time back. I understand I want my words to affect people. I want to use the words I type on this screen to make them think about issues I feel important to our nation, our being. Like accepting everyone regardless of color, beliefs or nationality. So, I will continue to just write. Or ramble as I am doing today. I will write for me. I will write what I feel and want to express if only to myself. I know not many people will even read this! But I will work to be a better writer. Somewhere along the way, I can only hope that someone is moved by something I write. Or someone thinks deeply about an issue of importance to our everyday existence. Everything else will take care of itself.
I don’t know or understand the direction of this blog or my mind for that matter. I just know there are millions of words in my mind. I can only hope that I am somehow able to put them on paper in an order that others will want to read. I don’t care where my blog goes, as long as the minutes I spend writing each day gives me some peace and fulfillment. If only so brief.
Till we meet again. Good Day.
Mind of Shoo
Mind of Shoo 