Standing Strong

Prov. 24:10 "If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small."

Standing Strong 

Without even being aware of what tension would rise I thought a writing course would be a good soothing exercise. I thought wrong. I love writing for my blog as much as I can and it feels therapeutic. I’ve been moving along at a nice pace as healing is taking place. Feeling good about myself I wanted a distraction via a fiction-writing course from all the illness talk. I realized I don’t know how to separate my fact from fiction.

The writing course claims that you should have a completed fictional SHORT STORY by the end of six lessons. I’ve taken this course many times over the years so I knew what to expect, expect the unexpected I thought heading into the course. What I didn’t expect was a classroom of five to seven people working on their novels in progress. Writers are awesome people, as diverse as a bag of Skittles even more diverse when they’re mixed with a bag of M&M’s! 

I decided to center my SHORT STORY on Faith and Hope, characters of a fictional tale but too close to my nonfiction story for my taste. I realized I didn’t like writing fiction at all. I do have an entire novel sitting in my files untouched for years, still nestled in the first draft stages. I also have a couple of short stories in my files that I won’t take the time to send them through the rigors of being picked apart by critique. I did learn a lot this round of taking this course. Everything I taught at one time being a mentor was dismantled, I watched my work being shredded not guided in any way. I wound up rewriting my short story for a final revision and it lost all the poetic substance of the entire tale. To me, my story became do-do on a shoe.

Tension, that only I knew was taking place, began about the third week. I wanted to drop the course but I also really wanted to complete the beloved class where I originally met so many of my current dear friends thirteen years ago. I continued on being the trooper that I am until I finally completed the sixth lesson of my short story.

I wondered why I set myself up for this adversity but it’s not much unlike when I post something on facebook to get a reaction when it’s the reaction I don’t like, I tend to tense up completely. Why do I bother? That is exactly what I felt like by lesson six, why did I bother? Let me give you a bit of advice, when taking a trip down memory lane don’t expect the same sensation you felt originally. The memory is in the past for a reason, it is over and done with and cannot be recreated in any way, shape or form. Lesson learned.

I was taught that if you’re going to say something negative about someone’s work, reinforce it with something positive. I didn’t feel much of anything positive coming through my screen. The feeling may have just been my tension build-up and I, not wanting to continue, reflected the negativity I saw. In other words, it was more than likely just my irritated mind arousing the tension.

What did I learn from this session of the writing course? Anything goes. You can work on your novel in progress and you’ll receive pats on the back for defying what the true intention of the SHORT STORY course is about. You’ll be rewarded for going against the grain. You’ll be held accountable for not understanding proper punctuation and you might even feel shamed into taking a punctuation course so your writing can get better. Your words will be pulled apart like shredded cheese and tossed on the floor for you to pick up the pieces and put back together.

So basically my writing sucks. THIS is why I’m sticking to my blog writing! Fiction is not for me at this juncture in my life. Nonfiction writing whether misspelled or punctuated wrong on my blog is MY journal style writing that releases my tension and saves me days and weeks of unnecessary pressure. I thought I was ready for open criticism but I think I still have a way to go.

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." 

~ Albert Einstein

Yesterday to release a ton of tension I went shopping. As anyone who knows me knows that I’m not a person who splurges on things. These past ten months my main purchases were vitamins, organic vegetables, three pairs of pants from the Goodwill and that’s about it. I’ve never acquired a taste for spending money. I wouldn’t say I’m a miser, I just like to purchase necessities over extravagances.

My mother sent me a Christmas gift back in October and she told me to buy myself something nice. You also know that my mother has no idea I’m fighting this illness. My first thought was to use the money in my fight of this disease but yesterday I woke, putting on my twenty-five-year-old winter shoes, I realized I never splurge and buy myself anything. With hubby off of work, I asked him if he wanted to go shopping and off we went. I bought two pairs of winter shoes/boots and eight nonfiction books all for sixty bucks! I’m a frugal shopper. Yay, me!

Shopping, reading nonfiction, and coloring in my adult-aged coloring books I received last Christmas released much of my tension. I am now once again on a recovering path. I think I’ll just stick to my journal style writing for a while. Just so you know, I’ve had diaries all of my life and not once did I concern myself with restructuring, grammar etiquette or revisions. I wrote to release tension and that is what I’m going to continue on my blog. Thanks for any and all understanding.

Prov. 19: 25 "Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware: and reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge."

Happy New Year...To My Return!

The frozen Platte River

Prov. 7:19 “For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:”

Happy New Year…to my return

Well, that break went well, except I missed writing every day. I tried and I am committing myself to pulling out some of my fiction and working on it but my blog needs me, my friends need me. 

You might think I don’t see you suffering in pain, and you might think I’ve left you all behind never to spare another encouraging word but it is that need that pulled me back. I need you all as much as you need my encouraging words.

Again I am not pinpointing anyone out here; my words are for many who see themselves in what I say. Pain. Who doesn’t relate to that one? Sickness! Who can’t say they haven’t been warding off a sickness these past couple of months (if not years); Not many I’m sure. 

I realized something the other day and am quite honored to say that people respect me and expect a certain manner and moral compass from me. They look to me for inspiring and encouraging words and will quite surely make note of when I’ve veered off track.

I posted something on facebook the other day with a negative overtone. While everyone expects the positive and encouraging words from me, they are quick to call me on anything negative. It’s kind of funny though, for an entire year I watched people day after day (and still do) share negative and hate filled posts and no one calls them on spreading hate and negativity. They just bask in the glory of feeling good about themselves by sharing the hate with the world.

That’s when I realized something, people respect me so much and have come to expect a positive energy from me that when something appears to have a negative overtone they steer me back on the enlightened path. That’s when you know your words actually are having an effect on the masses. That’s when you know that you’ve touched the souls of many.

So by realizing people miss my words of encouragement, I of course do what I normally do and that is WRITE! I think you all miss my blog because it is like I am journaling and you like peeking in on all that is going on with my life and how much like your journey is to mine. Not in a bad nosey kind of way but a good concerned kind of way as you relate. You think to yourself, ‘I wonder how Joni is doing’ and maybe wonder what I do to get through the same pain-filled days you yourself might be trudging through. I think you might need that bit of encouragement that has left your reading days empty while I was away. 

I’m back. I can’t give up writing and I certainly can’t leave you all hanging in wonder. I’ve decided to take you on this journey of discovering my medical condition so I don’t feel so alone is the process of whatever is going on with my body. 

I’ll seek a doctor, I’ll get diagnosed and I’ll let you in on the homeopathic process I hope I’m allowed to take. The only way they can diagnose MS is through a spinal tap and just reading about it made me cringe, so that is a big no! An MRI okay, if it’s an open tube (I’m claustrophobic), if not, I’ll live with my disability as I’ve been doing for four almost five years now MED FREE! 

I have some stuff to share and no facebook post is enough space, I NEED my blog, I NEED to write, and most of all I NEED YOU, my friends who CARE about me. So come along on my continuing journey of Christ and see where it is I’m being led to now. If you’re reading this, like it or not, God called you along for the ride! 

My trees awakened by the morning sun!

I Think Too Much

Matt. 26:53  "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?"

Wow, Joni thinks too much, who’d a thought that? Well, my dear, sweet friends that’s who! Boy, when you’re feeling discouraged or depressed they make sure that frown is turned upside down! Apparently, I think too much and should just write about it so here goes. 

I could allow memes to speak for me but where is the originality in that? I could also allow a copy/paste guilt trip to speak for me but where is the sincerity in that? I mean a meme here and there but a constant stream of memes becomes tedious in just the action it takes when my fingers could be used typing a blog post or writing a novel.

I’m not judging the people that do the meme stream, sometimes people have nothing to really say and it can become easy to allow someone else to do the thinking for you via the meme-stream. I was once that person until I was God-slapped into waking up. I usually try to allow bible verses or quotations to express the way I’m feeling or sometimes I open my mouth and my fingers let out what is considered truth-nobody-wants-to hear. Is that a bad trait? Nah, its justice to my soul is what it is!

The meme-stream opened my eyes when ‘your memories on facebook’ popped up every day. I’ve tried to close it down but it keeps popping up but you know what, they’re not my memories. They’re just some beautiful meme I shared years ago and I realized I allowed someone else to speak for me and that isn’t a memory because I can’t for the life of me know what I was thinking or doing when I shared the image. 

We’re living in a world where we’ve grown accustomed to others speaking for us because basically, that is all that social media is, a stream of thoughts, even if they’re the thoughts of people you’ve never met, the meme stream is the ‘in’ thing. Now, what could be wrong with a society that is full of people not thinking for themselves? Well, we’ll see when November rolls around, won’t we?

We’re all so pre-occupied with the meme-streaming that something is happening out in the REAL world that has gained control and nobody has the time to take action because the reins of the meme-stream are ruling over them. The reason people believe the lies are because they are fed the lies in ticker-tape fashion through memes disguised as truth. Society disappoints me more and more on a daily basis than it does in giving me hope for the future. 

I love the pictures that people take of their family (pets are family), their gardens, their weekly excursions with camera in hand. That gives me hope as I visually see the beauty being flooded in from their lives into my little neck of the world. A meme doesn’t give me the same hope in the world since more times than not they’re just used to click-bait the naïve so some megalomaniac can make money off of ad revenue. A vicious cycle if I do say so myself. And the language, goodness gracious me oh my, people post anything! The F-bomb, S-bomb, A-bomb; I realize so-called Christians could care less what they share with the world and allow people to see who they REALLY are. Yes people, Christians curse like sailors and drink like them too. 

Now back to my thinking too much. This is clearly the truth. Why should I care if people live and love the meme-stream? Why should I care what the so-called Christians are doing? I only care because I see a diminished society being ruled not by their world around them but by social media. I love my friends and care a little about facebook since all of my friends reside there. I love communicating via the written word (my blog) but I am totally done with ‘this day in history’ because guess what, nothing happened five years ago that I can share, that are my own thoughts.

I have one or two, five friends tops that convey their day via WORDS, the other eighty some friends meme-stream and I have to wonder, do they even know I exist? They probably do but more than likely block me so they don’t hear my tales of this God and Son that I’m addicted to. I’m okay with that. I’m okay with screaming into the emptiness of space and time and no one noticing. 

I try to lift the spirits of other people but sometimes I get bogged down and distracted by the meme-stream so I have to withdraw for a bit so I can rebuild my strength. I live to write and share my words, uplift not bring people down. I live to live and embrace whatever God throws at me on any given day and no friends, my days are not spent on facebook, twitter or any other meme-stream forum.

The season of slumber will find me reflecting on the previous months in the year, the truths that I’ve shared, and what’s going on in today’s world means to me. When you look at me and read my words, don’t see a hypocrite, don’t see a so-called Christian, see God in me and that’s it!

God bless!

The Well Is Dry

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” 

– Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

The Well is Dry

After writing yesterday, I prayed about what I wrote and the reason behind why on earth would I share such a pity party post? Well, I know why, because even I have my bad days. People think because I laugh and make them smile that there is nothing wrong in Joni’s world, well let me tell you, there are things wrong in my world! 

Is it possible to focus too much on the Lord, therefore alienating yourself from the rest of the world? Am I to blame for all the angst in my life? I sometimes think I am. 

I’m trying to get back into writing and my well is dry. I woke this morning with a renewed faith when cool air kissed my cheek in the middle of summer. It was 6o degrees and a storm was about to erupt when all of a sudden, a poem came to my mind. The rain began falling, the thunder cheered with lightning displayed across the sky.

Was this God cheering me on? Was He letting me know He was right there and hasn’t left my side? It is as if He was filling my well with water to drink and words to write. The poem I wrote was, God is Crying. I normally write a poem, let it rest a day, then come back to the poem and fix anything that doesn’t work for me. Through the thundering morning and cool rain showers egging me on, I felt the need to post the words right away, so if you see something wrong with the poem, take it up with Him.

Proverbs 16:9 (NIV) “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.”

I sometimes wrongfully think I’m in control of my life when I know full well God is in complete control. When I whine of the pain I’m in and cry about the reasons my disability hinders me from doing what *I* want to do, I have to remember who it is I work for first and foremost. If anyone remembers (you have to go back to my posts from 2011-12) my disability hit me after my hubby got his sight back after being blind for two and a half years. The many hours behind the wheel driving to and from Omaha, sometimes two times a week, (6-8 hour trips) took its toll on the lumbar portion of my back.

Had this happened while he was blind, I would have never been able to do the work that I felt God had called me to do and that was to take care of my man. Yes, that was basically the job I signed up for when I met my beau but it was so much more than that. God had His hands in the stew the entire time and he decided to whip it up a bit to see how I handled the situation. 

I’m allowed a day or two to feel sorry for myself, by dagnammit, no one else will or does for that matter so I feel I have to have my bad days or I’ll never rise up and be more than the pain that defines me.

It’s weird how me having a bad day warrants hits on my blog out the gazoo! My happy, joyful posts might get 13-20 hits but my woeful, pained posts near the hundred and over hit mark, how odd is that? When I began this blog, it was all about the writing craft and when I decided to make it about God, I no longer wrote for other people, the hits or the followers, I took on the challenge to write what God wanted me to write and what I felt that He spoke to my heart to say to the world.

I no longer write to satisfy everyone else, I never LIVE to satisfy others; I only live for God, pain and all. I realize that God has me this way because my heavy lifting, hours upon hours of driving, snow shoveling and overworking myself days are over. I would have never stopped so God made sure I stopped, maybe so I wouldn’t further damage myself, after all, He did see ahead of the steps I take, this is His plan and not one of my own selfish making.

Sure I would love to be able to walk normally again, to dance while dusting, to skip while vacuuming, to meditate while mowing the lawn but that is not God’s plan for me. His plan is for me to rest. Maybe he has something big planned or maybe not, maybe the walk in the cornfields is His plan for me. Nah, I know that is not His plan, He told me so. Now you’ll have to tolerate me a little longer!

I’ll end this post on a happy note. While my husband is complaining that the 61 degrees and rain is too cold for the month of July (he LIKES the 100 degree days), I am relishing the dampness of an eight-hour rainfall accompanied by a dark overcast sky with stormy weather erupting every half hour or so. I have washed clothes, dried clothes, and folded them all because my back loves cooler temps and affords me more mobility than normal. Praise be to God.

I have written two blog posts today and all is right with the world…for today. May you look at God’s plan as the master plan for your life and your own plans as selfish fodder. Life is already too short to be giving up when YOU are done, always remember it will last until God is done!

“We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.” 

– Mother Theresa

Are you using your talent?

Matt. 8: 4 And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

Are you using your talent to glorify God? This was a question posed to us by Pastor Tim this Sunday. Yes we have three: Pastor Mike, Kevin, and Tim. This week it was Pastor Tim.

He asked us if we were using our talents to glorify God. It had me thinking about the change in my blog when I went from a writing blog, to my God given talent of a poetry blog.

This blog was focused on writing and the craft of writing and along with it the life of a writer. Was it for God or for me? Honestly, it was for me AND the writers out there. Is it what God wanted? I can once again say honestly, no, it is what I wanted!

God placed on my heart the change and it was up to me to see it through. (God does that, gives us free will so we HAVE to make a CHOICE.) I decided I was going to make the change to poetry (my God given talent) but not just ANY poetry, didactic rhyming  poetry, as my brother once called it. Didactic poetry is poetry with a message. That was me, my poetry always has a message for my reader.

Would it be received? Would my writer friends like the change or would it fall on deaf ears? Sure those thoughts crossed my mind, but I gave it up to God to let Him be the judge, not people. As of this posting, my stats are up! I went from maybe 10 –12 hits a day to 20 sometimes 40 hits or more and rising!

Maybe God was telling me something. Sure the people wanted writing knowledge but more than they knew, they also wanted God knowledge. A testimony of this God I speak of; where my devotion comes from and how do they get it.

Guess what people, It’s FREE!

God is always there, free to you and even to the non-believers, he’s there giving answers to all of your, “Why did he kill all those kids?” “Why did he take my mother/father/child grandmother away?” “Why? Why? Why?” He uses people like me who are devoted to Him to bring you a message that you might otherwise never hear, and maybe NEED to hear at the time you click on my blog.

My God given talent is poetry. Do I worry that I’m shunning my writing friends? Not at all. They’ve come to know me over the years and always saw God in my life so they probably knew at some time I’d have a God based blog.

So in answer to Pastor Tim: Are you using your God given talent? Yes sir, I am!

Prov. 17: 8 A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it: whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth.

Inspiration to Write

Now that I’ve made the decision to write, where do I find the inspiration to write and WHAT do I write?

Well first I go to the forum threads at LinkedIn, my new hangout. Topics abound on many different subjects and many ideas for writing topics spring up in my head. I thought about heading into WVU to take some online classes but I’m not ready to immerse myself into that yet.

While Writers Village University is my first love, the dedication I had to the site was lost and I’m having a heck of a time in getting back there. I find I can’t concentrate too well there. I still have ‘friends’ there but getting into a class and writing is just not in me yet. Maybe one day WVU will creep back in like the writing bug? Maybe I’ll find delight in going to class and sharing my writing once again, but for now I think I’ll stick to blog posts and poetry.

I’ve been with LinkedIn for quite a few years now but never felt like a real participant in the community forums. On the site, there are so many writers there it kinda makes your head spin. I’m not talking about wannabe writers, many are published writers, editors, and anything you need to know about writing is found there.

I find great discussions going on way out of my league because these folk seem to have MFA degrees and Bachelor degrees, and slim pickings for the wannabe’s like me. At least at WVU we all seem to be on the same level trying to acquire knowledge and grow as a writer from what we learn there.

While I don’t find inspiration at WVU, there are many that have, if you’re in the right clique. As many of you know, I’m not into cliques and all they stand for. I find more isolation in cliques than inspiration and I think that may be what drove me away to begin with. I’ve always fit into my blogging experience. It’s my haven where I can write share and possibly inspire folk.

I’ve met some great people via the blogosphere and even though you don’t see comments from them all, I know they’re there. They’ll read whatever they can and when I write something that triggers a response, they’ll comment. Other than that, I’m in an isolation booth, the Cone of Silence if you will, where I do all the talking in silent mode, they do the listening in an audience mode and this, my friends, is where our minds meet.

Back to the topic: Inspiration. Where do you find it? For me at this juncture, it has been in the forum groups at Linked In. They ask a question, and people intelligently respond and I feed off of their knowledge. I have written because of them and it is because of them I jumped back in the saddle.

I normally don’t contribute to the topic because most of what is said are things I would have said, so my input isn’t necessary. But I do find it as inspiring as watching the sunrise over the treetops, or the wind bustling through the trees, or the rain (rare to see this year) but rain none the less is definitely an inspiration-filled day.

Inspiration can be found on many different levels; in words, nature, forums and discussions. You just need to see words for all they’re worth and to me words are hidden gemstones of inspirational writing.

What inspires you to write? You don’t have to answer, just mull over the thought for a bit, be inspired and WRITE!

Back in the Saddle Again

Back in the saddle…again.

So all my blog followers know, I fell off the horse (metaphorically speaking) and have to get back in the saddle. I was hit pretty hard in the writing gut, and I didn’t want to come back to the writing world. But as all of you know (that are writers) you can’t just brush it off like lint on a sweater.

No, writing is in your blood whether your want it to be or not. It will pull and tug at you until you put SOMETHING, anything on paper/computer. It’s been calling me slowly back and my poetry is what I started with as you can see with some of my recent posts of poems.

I’ve had ideas for blog posts swirling in my head like a mad twister crossing the farm. I want to take it slowly and that is why I’m starting with poetry. My poetry is closer to me than any fiction tale I could write. I figure if my beau can get published, just for the fun of it, I think I can intentionally try, right?

I tried taking the f2k class offered from WVU back in June, but my son needed an emergency procedure done, taking six weeks healing time and that cut me right out of the f2k session. I won’t apologize for putting my son first before writing, since no one else on this God’s green earth thinks of him, I most certainly do! Yes my writing is important to me, but always, my son comes first.

I figured with him getting back to school, his senior year I might add, I thought now would be a fine time to get back into writing. I started with, to me, some cheesy crappy poems, next up some blog posts, and then I’ll work on getting something published.

There ya go, I’ve set goals for myself and I think that is all-important to accomplishing things, whether it’s writing or cleaning the house. I’d like to get back to my other blog of the story of my life too. It hit too close to home and dredged up some bitter memories for me, so I halted it, feeling I was divulging too much. When you write too truthfully that it hurts, then it’s time to step back and take a break.

With fall and cooler weather headed my way, I won’t be relinquished to mowing, vacuuming and cleaning, days on end! I think I’ve got OCPD, (not to be confused with the repetitive actions of OCD) OCPD just means I have a Compulsive Personality disorder, among other things wrong with me. I love it clean and luckily my beau does too, so we’re both clean freaks!

While my house is ‘walk-in unexpectedly’ clean, I can now focus more on my writing. I’m sure y’all will benefit from it too. I’m also sure y’all have heard it before but remember, I was coming from a very hurt place and now I feel I’m more healed and ready than ever. I’m not doing it for comments, I’m doing it for ME!

Remember these words: “When you fall outta the saddle, get your butt back in the saddle, and ride like the wind!”

Blog a Book

It is perfectly okay to write garbage – as long as you edit brilliantly.
C. J. Cherryh

Here’s the concept. For starters you need to start yourself a blog. I have one and the settings are set to ‘closed’ where no one can read or comment on it but me. My goal? Write my life story. I don’t know where the idea came from and at first I had it opened to where people could read my gut wrenching, painful past and learn from it, but then I thought I was revealing too much for public viewing so I closed the doors and am writing my novel instead, through the use of a blog.

Many of you have read books like Go Ask Alice and surely, the Diary of Anne Frank. The format is quite simple in a daily journal style format; with some added tidbits meshed into the story. Well that is my goal in Blogging a book. Day after day I’ll write one tale after another, compile posts of substance, possibly 1,000 words a day. Then at the end of the month I will have close to 30,000 words written! Sounds like a plan.

You don’t need any fancy gadgets and sidebars, this is where you are just going to pen your story. You could do it outside the blog, but I know many of you don’t back up your work on a daily basis. This is where all your writing will be safe, and when your computer crashes and you lose everything, the blog will still be there storing all that you’ve written, so a months worth of work will be safe.

Writing a novel of fiction would be done the same way, but not so much as a journal. I’m going for the journal-like route because my biography is non fiction. The style might change after I get it all completed, but this gives me something to write about on a daily basis. I’m done on classes for now, I’m finished leading people in their writing (except for my blog here at Write Right) and I’m moving on to action. The action being that I’m writing every day, no outside negative influences, and I’m well on my way.

If you’re a new writer and this is your first time penning a tale. Do your research! You don’t need to pay for expensive classes to help you along the way. Make google your friend and search out style of writing, voice, metaphors and the like. Surround yourself with positive people which you can find on many writing sites on the web, for FREE! Take it from me, one negative person can take you down, so flee from them! Be forewarned! Surround yourself with positive and positive will be your pillow at night, and all you dream.

There are many storage facilities, also free on the net, GOOGLE is one of them. Make sure you store your work somewhere other than just on a blog. Your files are not safe because computers have been known to crash, with years of hard work wiped out completely, all because no one thought to BACK-UP their work. Sure the websites you store your work at can rarely be hacked, and this is why you choose many sites all with different passwords.

Keep your novel/blog/work safe! And Write Right!

Blogging II

There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you.
~Z.N. Hurston

To Blog or not to Blog, that is the question. I see many blogs about nothing yet I see many more about something. People have a need to share with the world their everyday lives. It’s as if it is a form of medicine for them. Much like the social networks are an addictive form of sharing, chatrooms the home of the homebound, blogging is to writer’s the medicine of the field.

If you have something enlightening to tell the world, or you’ve discovered a ruby among the rubble, you don’t want to keep it all to yourself, you want to share it with the world. The social scenes allow for tiny bits and pieces, but a blog, that can give you an entire mouthful to spoonfeed your followers. And if it something everyone wants to hear/read then your followers will read you every day to see just what it is that you’re sharing with the world.

A blog can be a step in the path your going down as a writer. Writer’s like myself like to give you morsels of the writing craft, while other blogs give you authors and interviews with authors, while some blogs review the books that they’ve read, while there are some blogs with absolutely nothing to offer, and I wonder why they even try blogging. That’s right, blogging is a form of mental release in a world where sharing what you ate for dinner has become status quo. People have a need to share with someone, ANYone, their everyday, month, year, happenings.

It’s not just about blogging, it is also about promoting your blog. Promoting it on facebook, twitter, blog catalog and many other places that will get people to come and read what you wrote, that is if they are interested in what you have to say. And it helps if you have friends because via friends you get hits and shares. People will share with others the things you’ve written if they felt it worthy enough to share.

Here lately, I have a set of  ‘so called friends’ who apparently like what I’m writing so much that they run back and tell their friends what I’ve written. Then those friends come and visit me, but not without an agenda to sabotage all of my hard work that I put into writing my blog. This is the reason I’ve chosen to keep my personal life personal and become a quiet blogging recluse, sharing only what the writing world offers me.

Sure I’ll write blog posts about writing, but you’ll be hard pressed to learn anything of me on a personal level, because well, I’m keeping myself closed to friends who cut you in the throat, find folly in bringing you down, and sit in sheer joy by bringing on negative vibes to my positive world of blogging.

Blogging can be a fortified essential nutrient in your writing diet. Write right and they’ll come to read what you wrote. Write wrong and they’ll move on to the next blog that excites them. It’s all about reaching the reader and have them liking what they’re reading. To blog or not to blog, THAT is the question!

I Love to Blog

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.

~~Cyril Connolly~~

When I started this blog, many moons ago, it was just a whim. I was going to write about the worlds troubles and I myself was going to stand on my high horse and cut down every non-fruit bearing tree in this world and point fingers and hopefully try to help. Maybe in hopes of it showing a beautiful fruit bearing tree as a result.

Something changed after the first few posts. It felt wrong, so I didn’t blog for a while and continued taking my writing courses, mentoring and writing my stories. Then it slapped me upside the head, write about writing!

I googled writing blogs all the time and found some interesting ones but they seemed so academic. I felt like I was sitting back in school at my desk, only this time, I had a computer in front of me, instead of pencil and paper.

I never wanted this to be an academic type blog on writing. I wanted you to feel like you’ve come into my living room, sat down with a nice warm cup of coffee or tea, whichever you prefer, and I would go on and on about what *I’ve* learned about the writing world.

Write it and they will come, that’s my theory. Like the field of writing dreams? They’ve come, they follow and they learn. Sometimes I go off topic and tell of my life in the here and now, but this is what makes my home here on the blog so comfortable. You not only learn about writing, you learn about this human being that is sitting on the other side of the screen typing her heart out. I hope you gain out of this blog, that I’m a good- natured, spiritual person who loves everything that life throws at me. I see it all as a challenge and I will gulp adversity down, and spit it back out, so I can go on and be a stronger person for everything that comes my way.

I don’t seek out followers, I don’t entice them to visit, I don’t shower them with gifts, I just write, and if they visit, well then, I hope they enjoy their stay. It is all I can ask for in a blog setting. Most of my following is writers, and they understand what makes up a writer at heart. We feel, like no other people in the world feels.

Maybe my topics deter you, or makes you feel uncomfortable? I think that would be my bible topics or headings? Some told me that the page had a hard time loading, and I know it was because of the pics I used, so I switched to scriptures, not to offend but to make visiting my home here easier for you. Navigating is easy too, the links are all helpful in the academic world of writing. I have fellow bloggers writing sites, friends who love to write, and my family here has grown.

So if you feel discouraged in writing, come visit me and sit for a spell. You’ll find something inspiring here and you’re more than welcome to leave a comment, or a tip on the table for my hospitality. ha ha.

I love to blog. If you’re visiting, enjoy. If you’re a regular, thank you. If you’re human too, like me, I send many blessings and positive thoughts your way so that you too may learn and grow in the world of technology. No one said you couldn’t have a cup of coffee and idle banter along the way.

godspeed friends...

The reason one writes isn't the fact he wants to say something. He writes because he has something to say.
~~ F. Scott Fitzgerald ~~

10 Reasons to Blog

Job 13: 6 Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.

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1. Because you want to tell your story in all forthrightness, truth and honesty.
 

When you have a blog your mind is like a conduit and the page is where all your  
thoughts flow. The written word is a healing tool (can’t say that one enough)and as you tell your story, you are releasing any emotion attached.

2. Because you can?
 

There is a blog about almost anything. Not almost anything, ANYTHING! Do you have toes that look like a deer? Well let me tell you, somewhere out there, there is a blog on that subject. We blog because it’s free, we can, and because we grow.

3. To reach out to lost souls who need something to read. Preferably  problems and ways of dealing with life, other than their own.
 

Sometimes we get so caught up in our own problems, just to sit down and read how others are getting through, say, the recession, cancer, or any struggle, we connect through a blog.

4. To teach someone something that they might not have learned elsewhere.
 

The blog is a way of teaching others new ways of writing, new recipes to try, new ways of healing. The blog is a teaching tool.

5. To learn something that you might not have been taught elsewhere.
 

With the advent of the internet, we have chosen not to use the library. We can search anything we want, right from the comfort of our homes. I’ve learned more about the Hubble project on the internet than any book could have possibly taught me. (And I get to see pics!) Blogs can be learning tools.

6. To give back to society what it has taken away from you.
 

From the comfort of your home, in your PJ’s, you can write and release all your feelings that you felt were inadvertently taken away by someone saying, “You can’t do that.” or “You’ll never amount to anything.” A blog gives back.

7. To share
 

All of the above can fit right here in this spot. We blog to share. Why be selfish, when you can share with the world? The WORLD!

8. Enlighten
 

Maybe someone is going through the same thing as you. Maybe there is another writer who is looking for something. To enlighten a person, we have to be willing to post all the examples as stated above. It might enlighten someone, somehow.

9. Encourage
 

“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all!” People feed off of encouragement while they use a shell when it is reversed. I encourage everyone to have a blog, even if they are not writers.

10. Inspire!
 

If there is one thing in life I would love, that is to inspire someone! This is the greatest gift to mankind that I could give. Through my blog, I try (and mostly succeed) in giving you all ten of these here tips. Not because I have to, because I want to be a part of your life and shower you with blessings. Through my words, my job is...to share,encourage enlighten...inspire!

godspeed my friends!

Word Up!

It's none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.
Ernest Hemingway

So whats the word...the word up!

Sometimes I read blogs and wonder how all these people keep it up. Do they just fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way? I like to maintain my blog where there is information that people can use and where the posts only go to not more than 500 words. Imagine a thousand word post of nothing, uck! Now if it is coherent, that's a different story

My time is precious to me and although I don’t get done the million things I’d like to, I do like to think that my blog is something worthwhile where readers,writers and passers-by enjoy their visit. Whether it is for educating themselves, (tons of links to dip into over to your left) whether it is for the pictures, ( I have tons of those too for the visually unimpaired), or whether you just come for inspiration, (lots of poetry to scan through also.)

A blog is not a showcase like facebook, where you announce you have to go the bathroom, be right back sort of thing. A blog is a tool to illuminate your world. To allow people to peek in your window in a voyeuristic fashion, so you better give that person the best of you (you know, don’t be caught with your hair in disarray?) Or better yet, don’t be caught babbling about nothing or the people might move on to peek into the next window.

In the windowed world of information, I think peeping toms have gone out of fashion. We can all, in the living room or dens of our home, peek into peoples world, and get caught up in the fascination of, doing absolutely nothing. What would Jesus do? I personally think he’d give a ‘shout out’ to all the wandering sheep and give them an enlightening parable so they can see their way into the light, via understanding.

So this is what my blog is all about. Not a joyride through neighboring communities. Its not a playground where we meet and throw sand in each others face. This is a place where words run into punctuation and somehow form a sentence. Thus this is a tool of understanding.

To you my fellow bloggers, live and learn grow and love. To the voyeurs, there is a life out there and it is happening, whether you live it or not! It’s happening people!

Matt.9:13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

To Tell the Truth

John 3:21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

I didn’t dream last night about what to write, so I’ll go with my handy dandy instincts here. Truth in writing.

We as writer’s always embellish the truth on some level and maybe that is why I have trouble with the fictional tales. My spiritual tales are close to truth, and close enough to my quirky truth that they are real.

Honesty is something we need in our characters. For far too long we’ve read fiction that lies and in a sense we have a nation that feels comfortable in lying. Our politicians lie, our friends lie, and sometimes even our churches lie, (although they believe it is the truth, so I guess it’s okay.)

I have always been honest to a fault. Sometimes my truths seem over the top, unbelievable, and mere conjecture, but let me tell you, I have a real hard time lying. In my characters, I like an honest duo that fights the dark with the power of Light. My dark characters can lie like a rug. But where do I pull the character’s persona from if I myself am unable to lie?

I dig deep into my past, where people have lied to me to no end. I dredge up old horrible memories and create a character out of that. I have some doozies too. The character then comes off as dark and deeply disturbed.

Now with non-fiction, like my blog, I tell the truth until I’m blue in the face. I hold my breath and think, “Did I just write that?” People ask me,”Did that really happen?” And I have to say, “Yeah, it did as awful as it sounds, it did.”

I’m writing my memoirs and I was moving along posting my story in a NaNo fashion, National Novel Writing Month, where you pen some seventy-thousand words in a month.
There I posted most of my life, up to about twenty one, and the poor souls couldn’t believe my story. They did, because they know me, my personality,and my honesty but they were stunned to see that I turned out this way, as good and honest and pure as I am. Okay not perfect by no means, but you get what I mean, right?

There it is, my testament of faith. If I lie then would my testament hold any credence? I don’t think so. In truth, my testament is a rock, a foundation to stand on firmly and people look at me and say, “Wow!”

Ever hear the saying, “The truth shall set you free?” In all honesty, it does, it is a healing place for me. If you deny the pain, anguish or hold shame in what has happened in the past, in essence, you are lying to yourself and making a mockery of the very faith that you hold in your heart.

So listen up. We writer’s, and non writer’s, have the most powerful tool in our hands and we need to wield it, it is the HEALING TOOL, brought to you by, none other than, God. *smile*

godspeed friends...

The Blog

Some may say, “Life isn’t all about blogging.” I say *whack*! I’m kidding folks. Life isn’t all about blogging. Life is about, well, life, and living it.

But as a blogger, I like to think that they are at least worthwhile. How many times have you googled something, only to be taken to a blog? Blogs are becoming the information of today and maybe tomorrow. They are enlightening, fun, and a virtual breeding ground of pain and angst, but also they are a tool for learning. Not only learning about a skill but learning about people, meeting others like yourself, writer’s and people who have the same interests as you.

When I first started blogging, over three-hundred posts ago, I never thought that I’d have anything worthwhile to add to the blogging world. I thought maybe this was a passing fancy and I’d lose interest after a while. Instead I’ve found that twenty-one followers later, that I do have something to say. My friends and family will say, “You can sure talk up a storm, why not blog up a storm?”

That’s the funny part, my family is non-supportive. Wait, I have my fiancé and my son who claim to follow me religiously. I mean my blood family. Do they even know I exist or that I am a writer? Who knows!

I have a family within my writing community who stands by me, supports me, and is very encouraging in all that I do. I think sometimes they are my family more than the blood people who claim to be related to me. When a writer friend from across the country can send me money because she read of the hardships that we’ve endured, while my blood family ignores me like I have the plague, I’d say my writing friends ARE my family.

Now don’t misunderstand me, my beau’s family is awesome beyond belief. They have been here for us every chance they get! They care! But then again, read my poem Nebraska and you’ll see why. These people rock!

My blogging days are far from over as I help along the writing community to become better writer’s. Maybe give them ideas that will grow into something promising, or maybe even post that market that will find their work a home and they will become the published writer that they dreamed of becoming.

All in all, no life isn’t about blogging, but life is about helping people and that is why I will help people until the day I rejoin my Father in heaven.

Angel Always...godspeed friends...

Check Mate

Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing. It’s the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting. As a writer, words are your paint. Use all the colors.
Rhys Alexander
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Since blogger won't upload my pics, I'll resort to what I know and love the most, writing quotes! They keep us all motivated.
***

So you were anticipating the blog about the correlation between writing and chess? Well let me tell you, I can give a really good analogy of a chess/ life scenario but I’ve really got to work on the writing/chess.

Okay where do I begin? I’ll start with the white side. This is the team I always go for in playing chess. It reminds me of purity and all that that entails. Strength,wisdom, knowledge,etc.

In writing, the white team can be visualized as the protagonist, or the good guy. The dudley-do-right, the main character of the story. Then we have the black team and they are the antagonist, the bad guys, the dark force, the one or ones that will be causing all kinds of trouble in the story.

We have pawns on both sides, correct? The same powerful pieces standing behind the pawns on both sides too. The pawns can be seen as the disposable characters, if you will. Now you have all of these characters standing behind you vying for a place so lets give them a place.

The rook will be the homestead or foundation of your story, the dark side has an ominous looking castle which probably houses Count Dracula or some other dark figure.

The knight will be the character in your story that does all the fighting for you. The dark fights for the light, the light normally wins IN THE END, hopefully, with fingers crossed the Light will win. (emphasis on WILL win)

Then we have the bishops. They can be your moral compass. The good seed buried in all of us that sometimes we call a conscious. Now the dark bishop is who in your story? Well it’s the dark force or the bad seed that will not and can not take root because you’ve given him/it no fertile soil in which to grow.

Ah, now we have the king and queen. This will be the strong lead characters in your story who eventually are left standing with the dark side (king and queen) all alone on that big checkered board, or white page.

What do we do in this position? We do what any good writer would do and that is knock the pants off of the Dark Force and we have our main characters all full of light left standing in a triumphant glow of completion. Check Mate!

Hey I think this sounds better than the football analogy. Have either of these two posts made any sense?

Good...now lets see if I can see what gardening and writing have in common. Okay, I’m kidding!

Now we know what makes a story so what are you waiting for? Why are you sitting here reading, shouldn’t you be writing?