Thursday, April 23, 2009

Writers


I have a new appreciation for my friends who write columns and what they go through on a week to week basis. Coming up with one story line after another is a hard way to make a living. I can see why some scan the blogs and Twitter for ideas. I recently pitch an idea about my stroke to a friend and she was so happy. At least it took the pressure off her for one more story and this one fell into her lap. I feel like it’s time to tell my story to a larger audience so I’m trying to take my story to the media. I’m talking to some interviewers for the television stations locally and see if their interested. May is National Stroke Month and my story needs to be told to give some people the hope for a more normal life. I think that by being open an honest about what happened to me and talking about what I’m able to do now will ease people’s fears. I hope to give them some answers they need to hear. At least that’s the reason I started this blog.

I stare at a blank screen with a solid blinking slash just waiting for words to pour forth. The last few days I’ve had a problem spelling words and thinking clearly. Not to worry, I’ve had the problem before and will again but it does give one pause. Like Lin I have trouble writing with a pen. Unlike her I can use the keyboard fairly well but my thinking sometimes goes astray. Words look funny to me and I’m not sure if there spelled right. I check the dictionary often and the thesaurus is my friend. I discovered that trick when I was recovering from my stroke and was learning to type again. I’d often spell the word so wrong or couldn’t think how to begin to spell it, I was lost. Rather than use a simple word I wanted to use the word I liked, nothing else would do. But how does one think of a word when one isn’t thinking clearly.

Often this blog writes itself but gets hijacked, I start off with one paragraph then I write another one that starts a chain of though that has nothing to do with the first paragraph. My last blog was like that, it didn’t quite write itself but I was thinking of things and they just came out. I’m reading Jean Auel’s series “Clan of the Cave Bear”, I’m on the forth book of the series “Plains of Passage”. The heroine remind’s me of a girlfriend I once had. The hair color and the straight forward manner, no she wasn’t a cave-women but she was strong. So when I read the book I can see her or at least I see enough of her that it take’s me back. One of my comments asked why I had written that particular piece. It dovetailed with what Dr. Lightness was thinking about another subject all together. That’s the magic in what we write and the viewer read, thought’s dovetail and mesh together. When that happens you feel a kind of cosmic rush and an overflow of magic.

Of course there the hell of writing first. You know what they say “writing is easy, you just look at the blank sheet of paper till the drops of blood break out on your forehead”. Or that’s the hell of writing for a deadline, tick tick tick. Every second, every blink of the cursor is another second lost or if your lucky gained in the quest to write the perfect piece. A piece that will touch each reader somewhere, whether it asking questions. Or amplify’s what the reader is already thinking about. I love when that cosmic connection is made and two minds meet and think alike. My blog has been the bridge that carries me far away to distant lands and minds. And somehow we meet and shake hand’s and say I know what you mean.

6 comments:

Lin said...

You know what they say “writing is easy, you just look at the blank sheet of paper till the drops of blood break out on your forehead”.*Grin*

Yep, this post made me smile and nod in agreement.

Your post is so beautifully written! I've been watching your writing style coming on leaps and bounds in the last few months and your blog posts have a real rhythm and message. So don't worry about your writing, you're doing a fantastic job. Just relax and the ideas for posts will come :-)

christian pélier said...

:)

christian pélier said...

Yep !!!

christian pélier said...

Yep !!!

Shadowscapestudio said...

Wonderful post Michael.
Unlike you and your stroke, I am just a lousy speller. I write and it underlines half my words as spelled incorrectly. I right click on them to get the correct spelling and it does not even give me possibilities because I have spelled it so poorly. And I find it is a word I want to use, but often search for a different word to replace it because I can't figure out the correct spelling.
But my problem is not in something I have lost, like you. That has to be tough to deal with.
I hope you get some good interviews.

unbearable lightness said...

For me, writing is best when it's more inspiration and less perspiration!