Writing is the River . . . and the River is Wide

Of all the things I’ve done in my life, writing is the one thing I cannot do without. No matter what other label I’ve held, from dishwasher to customer service rep to real estate agent, “writer” is the one label that has always been, the one label that I have always thought of myself as having.

When someone asks my occupation, no matter the verbal utterance issued from my mouth, writer is the echo in my head. An echo so strong, so loud I swear at times it has escaped and others have heard it whisper in the nothingness behind me. Even when the words that came forth from my voice were everything but.

And I have ignored that whisper.

But writing is the river that flows through my blood.

And the river is wide.

And it is forgiving – even if the muse is not. So I am learning to BE the writer. Every day, new words spring forth on the page in front of me, creating scenes and flashes of insight that the river has carried in its swift embrace. Just waiting for me to swim with it. To catch its essence. To write it down.

Now I sit with an open soul as the river washes over me, washes through me, flows with my blood.

And I write.

Writing is the River

What is it about writing that’s so fascinating? That’s so ingrained, one who aspires to write can do nothing about writing, save to write? What is it about writing that keeps us up late at night begging the muse to pay us a visit? Even for just a single, tiny morsel of exhilaration? Of accomplishment?

The desire to be among the greats. The desire to be counted. To be heard. Even laughed at. Or at least, with.

That’s it for me anyway.

Writing is the river that runs through my blood.

As many times as I’ve tried to take myself seriously, I find something else comes along to vie for my attention. Like a screaming baby. Like the dinner that needs to be cooked. Or the child whose fever needs to be cured. Or the bathroom that needs a good cleaning. Yes, it seems, life gets in the way of the River.

But it’s time to open the dam.

And let the river seek uncharted tributaries.  To let the water fill the dry bed of procrastination and overflow the banks with its tales and its desires. To open the floodgates and be satisfied.

Indeed, writing is the river that runs through my blood

Making me thirsty

For the waters that flow

Deep within

My heart, my soul

The (un)Resident Muse

The Muse, who from this moment forward shall be called Mr. Chievers or maybe just Chievers for short, decided to make an appearance last night. Here’s what we worked on -

• Everlasting – proofreading and editing of the final manuscript
• Life Beyond Limits – outline and concept
• The Sherri Tree – fine-tuning concept, beginning of intro
• A yet unnamed fiction novel – middle writing
• Teacher – completed essay

Soon I will be posting a separate page of works in progress for your perusal as well as some of the poetry I’ve written over the years. I expect to do that sometime next week.
The weather is cool but sunny today. Nice stream of light coming in the office window. I always find it so much easier to write when the day is bright.

One for the Day

I have no idea what that title means. It just popped into my noggin and the muse insisted I write it down. So there it is.

I am mad at the muse. Yesterday, you may remember, he called out to me . . . and then promptly hid. I think he popped right into my laptop because not only couldn’t I type properly, I couldn’t think either. And every time I tried to spill it out onto the page, the screen went dark.

Well, ok. That’s not entirely true.

But the screen did go dark. Honest. See, I was using battery power and this darn Mac has a feature that when there hasn’t been any activity for something like 20 seconds, the screen dims. It can be bothersome but I keep it that way (yes, I know I can change it) so that the battery lasts longer. It really is a handy feature. Usually.

Now I’m sitting at my desk, listening to the blustery wind outside my office and wondering where that darn muse hid this time. Maybe that’s what the cat was chasing. Oh, I hope not! Poor muse!

On second thought – poor cat!!

Well, if I have any chance of getting things done today, I guess I better find that muse. If you see him, please send him home.

So . . . What to Write?

Like I mentioned a couple posts ago, I’m taking this blog in a different direction – a little more to the “writer’s life” side of things. I had toyed with the idea of removing the rest of the posts or archiving them but I really think they’re a part of what this blog is ultimately about so I’m leaving them here.

So, now – what to write?

Well, I’ve got a whole bloomin’ list of stuff in my ideas pile! Not sure what the heck I’m going to do with all of them. I’m hoping they will incubate and write themselves. If that’s not possible, well then . . . we may have a problem.

We – as in me and the muse.

Often the muse has his own mind. And the direction I want to take whatever we’re writing is not always the same direction the muse envisions. I think I lose more often than the muse does. LOL! But I suppose that’s the nature of the deal, right? Although, I’m willing to bet the muse doesn’t have a problem with it – hehe.

Seems that every time I sit down to write, something interrupts me – kids, husband, telephone, etc. I have so many ideas floating around in my head that never seem to make it to the paper. And what I do get down on paper, doesn’t ever feel complete. Take my current manuscript, for example. I’ve been writing it for quite some time. Really, it probably is complete but I can’t seem to get past this stage with it.

Then take the novel in the drawer. I’ve been writing it for, what?, I think 2 or 3 years now. The characters have taken up residence in my head and I’ve grown quite used to them there. Almost too much to put them down on paper. I know – that’s where they belong. And I’m sure I’m just making up excuses.

Oh – you’re going to have excuse me – I have to go write now. The muse is calling . . .

Lieurance-King Article Challenge

PRESS RELEASE

Writers Work Together to Challenge One Another
Professional and Beginning Writers Face Off to Market their Businesses and Help Each Other Succeed

The Working Writer’s Coach is at it again. After issuing and facilitating a 40-article challenge to several freelance writers in the last quarter of 2006, Suzanne Lieurance has partnered in a strategic alliance with freelancer writer-editor Kristen King for a New Year’s Article Challenge.

Twenty-five writers have accepted the challenge and are competing for the finish line to reach the goal of writing 30 articles between February 1 and March 31, 2007.

Participants come from all over the world. So far, writers from across the USA, Canada, and even Australia have become part of those to accept the challenge. Some are professional freelance writers who have taken the challenge in spite of their schedules being filled with paying clients. Others are newbies who are writing for article directories for the first time.

Several writers have set up their own blogs and are on their way to becoming successful freelance writers as a result of the challenge. Kate Garvey has already written ten articles and sent her first query letter to a magazine. Hal Manogue, author of ShortSleeves, started a blog for his poetry and has written more than ten articles for the article directory.

Lieurance and King know the marketing power and benefit of writing for free article directories. “It’s all about the resource box. If you have a good resource box that invites people to visit your Web site or blog, you become more visible not only to prospective clients, but also on search engines’ radar screens,” says Lieurance who currently has 63 articles posted at ezinearticles.com.

King has three articles at EzineArticles.com and is plugging away at building up her article marketing portfolio. “The article challenge is exciting for me because article marketing is something I’ve always wanted to do,” says King. “By teaming up with Suzanne and going through the process for the first time with the other participants, I’m hoping to show them that even if you’re not old hat at the articles marketing thing, you can still succeed and prosper because of it.”

Yvonne Perry, the winner of last year’s competition wrote 44 articles in less than three weeks. “I find this challenge is not only a lot of fun, but a great way to get more clicks to my Web site and more links from other sites to my blog,” Perry says. “I could win this challenge, but for me it’s more about seeing other writers succeed by making an effort they wouldn’t have made otherwise.”

To spark the competitive spirit of these writers, a progress report is given in weekly updates to everyone in the challenge as well as to those on King and Lieurance’s subscriber lists.
In order to boost the number of views the articles receive, the writers participating in the challenge “rank” and comment on one another’s articles at ezinearticles.com. Lieurance and King also offer a free 21-day mini-course called Tips for Effective Article Marketing to help writers complete the challenge. Anyone can subscribe to the mini-course at http://www.the-working-writers-coach.blogspot.com/ or http://www.inkthinker.blogspot.com/.

After the 2006 challenge, the writers who participated compiled an eBook of articles they wrote during the contest. Each writer is using that ebook as a marketing tool and as a gift to subscribers of his/her newsletter.

You have to wonder if this challenge is really a competition or collaboration. It’s intended to be both. For more information or to be notified of the next challenge date, please contact Suzanne Lieurance at suzanne@workingwriterscoach.com.

Updates and Changes

Now that other areas of life have come more into balance in recent months, I once again will have the time and energy to devote to this blog and my other sites. As such, you’ll notice I’ve updated the header to reflect the direction I’d like this blog to focus – still on writing, but more so the professional aspects of it. I’ll still be posting this type of content . . . just not here. It’ll be at my main blog. I’ve also started a new blog specifically for my design stuff. You’ll find it -here-.

Stay tuned for more updates in the coming days!