Notebooking: Let Me Tell You a Story...

by Jewels E 5/09/2014 2 comments

Today, I'm very excited to be introducing this little Notebooking feature. Why am I so excited? Because this feature is about my writing. Writing has always been apart of me. Since I first started reading chapter books, I have been writing. Writing stories and poems and experimenting with language and words. And for the past couple of years, I've been learning to write again. I've written some stories, but nothing that I've ever shared. So what does that have to do with Notebooking? Let me explain.

In this feature, I hope to share my journey as a writer with you. I hope to share with you what I've learned, what I'm working on, bits of my stories and inspiration. It's not going to be something I can feature once a week. And I am probably not the best of teachers out here on the webs, but I'm not here to guide anyone so much as share what I'm experiencing as someone who is daring to write. I say "dare" because I've learned something in these last two years that I've been writing.

Here's what I've learned: first of all, writing requires practice, or you get rusty. You can always pick up that pen again, but it's not exactly like riding a bicycle. The craft feels a little put out that you've abandoned it for so long and doesn't always work with you the minute you decide it's time to start crafting again. So practice is essential. When I say practice, I don't just mean daily practices or prompts. Those are excellent and I use them a lot, but I also mean it to say, you need to simply sit down and work on your story. Or at least, I do as a writer. Which leads me to believe (and some writers have confirmed) that other writers do too.

The other thing I've learned is writing is damn hard work. Hence, the need to do it daily. Do I do it daily? I was. And it felt great. Even if it was just a practice, just for the sake of getting words down on paper, it kept the craft  happy. Kept me happy. Am I still writing daily? It's more like weekly. Again, of late, life has been busy and juggling it has been tough. Writing, like reading, has fallen to the wayside. And here is where you need to dare. Dare yourself to write anyway. Even though it's tough and you're busy, write anyway. That's been part of my journey, taking that scary leap and writing despite the fact that real life requires far more of my attention than I'd like it to at times. Writing for me, has been an act of daring myself to continue writing even though it's hard work.

So I've been daring myself. And I started something recently I'm excited about. Something I really want to see through to the end. If the end is ten thousand words, well so be it. At least I'll have finished something. If it's larger, well then...I might have me a book.  So this little Notebooking feature is simply me sharing my journey as a writer with you. Will you join me here, every now and then, because I write?