Back to Writing

I’ve been missing writing.  For some reason, writing helps you become a witness of your life and a mirror to observe yourself.  Sometimes this is welcome and other times I’m just not liking what I see.  I read a book called “Three Dog Life” a memoir by Abigail Thomas.  It’s a memoir about her life after her husband suffers a brain trauma in an accident.  He loses his memory.  She write beautifully, simply, without pretense.  Some of her words, rang so clearly that I felt pain for him, for her.

She now has a book about writing memoir called “Thinking About Memoir” that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.  I first read an excerpt in the AARP magazine.  This from her website:

“Writing is the way I ground myself, what keeps me sane. Writing is the
way I try and make sense of my life, try to find meaning in accident,
reasons why what happens happens-even though I know that why is a
distraction, and meaning you have to cobble together yourself.
Sometimes just holding a pen in my hand and writing milk butter eggs
sugar calms me. Truth is what I’m ultimately after, truth or clarity. I
think that’s what we’re all after, truth, although I’d never have said
such a thing when I was young.  And I write non-fiction because you
can’t get away with anything when it’s just you and the page. What
would be the point?  Who would you be kidding? Why bother writing at
all? Once in a while you come too close to an uncomfortable truth, and
your writing goes flat, and your instinct might be to change the
subject. But this is the most interesting of moments. There is so much
to be found out. You can either stare at the page and realize hot dog,
this is a safe to be cracked, or you can crawl under the covers and
take a nice nap.”

Now I’ve gotten two more books to get me on the road to writing.  I’m no writer – it’s a tool of self-discovery for me.  Perhaps that’s why I resist writing so much.  One book is by Sark called “Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper.”  The colorful pens and hand-written text make it fun to read.  The other is by Julia Cameron called “The Writing Diet.”  I need to lose weight and, being the multi-tasker that I am, the idea of writing to lose weight sounds good.  I first began writing because of “The Artists Way.”  I think that started me on my journey to express myself in some creative way.

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