I’m three days late on this one, but despite my tardiness, I’m going to go ahead and post my responses to Rory’s daily four questions from September 8th.
What truly motivates you to write?
I’ve always enjoyed putting my thoughts and stories down in writing, but my busy life raising a family and holding down a demanding job limited my opportunities to sit down and write for fun. (I did have about have a dozen papers I wrote published in several trade journals back in the day.)
Then, in 2005, a friend of mine suggested that if I wanted to exercise my writing chops, I should start a blog, so I did. I have to admit I got a bit of a rush when I read my words published on the internet and to have total strangers read and respond to my words. From that point on, I had found my motivation to write.
What’s cluttering up your life today and what are you doing about it?
As a retiree, I wouldn’t say that my life is particularly cluttered these days, so there’s not much I need to do about uncluttering it.
Did you enjoy a creative childhood?
I used to draw a lot, write stories a little, and invent games to play, both by myself and with friends. I had a pretty vivid imagination, but I don’t know that I’d specifically say that I was creative. Perhaps imaginative would be a more apt word.
Have you ever wanted to write a book? Or if you have written a book, do you feel accomplished for doing so?
Yes, I not only wanted to, but I started at least three or four. But I never finished any of them. I loved inventing characters and writing scenes, but I could never develop a strong enough plot or story arc sufficient to sustain a novel-sized book. That’s one of the reasons I enjoy writing flash fiction. I can invent characters, construct individual scenes, and create dialogue while telling a short story with a beginning, a middle, and an end in fewer than 500 words, in most cases.
But maybe someday I’ll wake up and write the great American novel. Or not.
After my teachers in high school drummed it into my head that you’re never ever supposed to end a sentence with a preposition, I was shocked to find out that most language experts don’t actually abide by this so-called “rule.” Some grammar mavens even call that “rule” a myth.
Each and every day, a handful of bloggers post daily word prompts.
Written for the In Other Words prompt from Patricia’s Place. The challenge this week is to write a story or poem of five lines or fewer using the picture above and/or the words “
As many of you who read my blog know, I try to incorporate four or five daily prompt words into a post each day. In addition to my Fandango’s One-Word Challenge, there’s the Word of the Day Challenge, the Ragtag Daily Prompt, the Your Daily Word Prompt, and, more recently, the Daily Spur.
So Rory (A Guy Called Bloke) started another one of his poetry blog hop thingies. He chooses a topic — in this case, insomnia — and writes four lines of rhyming verse. Then he tags one of his readers who will, in turn, add his or her own four lines of rhyming verse to Rory’s and then tag one of his or her own readers to do the same. And so on and so on. It’s a case of wash, rinse, repeat. Once the poem [verse] leaves Rory’s blog, the next series of bloggers can take it wherever they want with regards their own four line verses, but they must always stay on topic.