A Glimpse into the Life and Times of a Working Writer
As writers wiser than I have said, ideas are all around us. Whether we do anything with those ideas depends on several things.
First, we each have God-given talents to use or let atrophy, but we aren’t all given the same gifts.
Second, if we have been given the ability to write, we usually know that at an early age – not always, but usually. So, as we go through life, we need to be aware of our surroundings and what’s going on.
Third, we can keep a writer’s journal and jot down ideas that occur to us: odds and ends of overheard dialog, a truly funny (or even a cruel) joke, an inspirational saying about building a bridge to the moon, the names of the seven dwarfs and the eight reindeer, a folktale we can research, and so forth.
A writer soaks up everything: dialogue – spoken and unspoken – between human beings; the communication that goes on all the time between God’s other creatures; sounds and how they vary at different times of day, or whether near or far away; smells, like cinnamon toast, a backyard barbecue, the oily diesel exhaust from a decrepit old school bus; the ocean and its majesty; a dead animal; the forest after a rainstorm; that which is beautiful and sometimes, that which is ugly; whatever we happen to experience or hear about.
My pages and posts will reflect some of what is going on in the world around me.