In an effort
to crank-start my blog, I have joined a few of my fellow writers from my writing
group, Write On Mamas, have agreed to commit to writing one or two blog posts
over the next month, and then visit each other's blogs and comment.
Quite by chance, I had a
fabulous, clever and witty new post spring effortlessly into my head during my morning
meditation two days ago. I often do this, have amazing and creative ideas
when I meditate, along with devising massive To Do lists and obsessing over
family members and wondering if they would appreciate my wise counsel and
'helpful' suggestions. My Buddhist nun sister says this is called 'Monkey
Mind'. Charming! But also pretty accurate. My mind, when I ask it to sit
quietly and think of nothing, jumps from one thought branch to another like a
chimpanzee on crack. No wonder I have not yet morphed into a creature of zen
calm and wisdom.
Anyway, I
obviously could not remember the incredibly funny and brilliant post from my
meditation, as I am now a 'woman-of-a-certain-age' and have the memory span of
a pissed goldfish, so I am going to have to think of something else to write
about. Damn.
The reason I
have not written a post for over a year is because it was taking up too much of
my time and attention, and meant that I was not writing my memoir, which was
the whole sodding point of starting a blog in the first place. To 'build my
platform' as all the marketing gurus will tell you, is essential if you
want to get a publishing contract, which, of course I do, so that I will be
become rich and famous and have people swooning over my magical prose and
hysterical hyperbole (I just learned this word from my new critique partner). The problem is that I am
too easily distracted. It's bad enough with emails and Facebook and constant
interruptions from my family, but add a blog to the mix and I am well and
truly done for!
The good
news is that I used the time not-blogging to actually finish my book! Yay! The
bad news is that it is just the 'shitty first draft' as Anne Lamott is fond of
saying, and I am now deep in the throes of re-writing and editing it. Still, I
am feeling encouraged as I can almost see the light at the end of a very long, demanding,
and extremely dirty tunnel.
I am hoping
that I am now disciplined enough to be able to manage a blog, as well as editing my
book. We shall see. In the meantime, I should probably decide what exactly I am
blogging about!
Here are my fellow Write On Mamas blogs if you want to pop over and say Hello:
(* Just in
case you are not a David Gray fan, this is a play on one of his songs: Back in
the World Again. Clever, right? But only if you are a Gray fan, otherwise it
would have gone completely over your head, hence I am explaining it now, which
is never good, right? Perhaps I should change the title …)
