Crafting with Words

The first friend I made in the DC area, when I moved here a few months ago, is a very crafty person.  I am happy to say that my uncraftiness does not seem to impact my magnetism for people who have both talent and skill.  Perhaps I'm just drawn to women who remind me of my mother (who you will be hearing from on here quite soon), as they seem to be drawn to me.  One of the things both women have pointed out to me recently is that even if the things I knit are misshapen, my cookies are always hard as rocks and painting (house or canvas) is certainly not my thing, I am a crafter of words.  A beginner blogger I may be, but I have been writing almost as long as I have been reading (yes, that really is a picture of me to the left).

The trouble is this:  If you do not keep doing that craft you love to do, you are going to lose a little bit of the skill you've acquired.  It's like a muscle that atrophies due to lack of exercise.  I have not, in the past decade or so, ever once not felt like a writer, but I know there was a time when that talent was thriving and the words just poured on out.  How could I not want that back?

I feel I am better at editing my work now, but even with two weeks of constant posting under my belt (since I thought five sites at once was a great idea), I still feel like a have a long way to go.  Instead of despairing over things I've lost - becoming convinced they can never be recovered, I have kept writing in the hopes that my perseverance will pay off.  But it isn't the only thing I can do to move forward.

The first thing I plan to do is to fit myself into my own schedule.  For me, being a blogger entails quite a bit of research.  I have books on blogging, I read blogs on blogging, I have several blogs in my Google Reader that I try to keep up with, I have friends and readers who have input and requests (responding to and brainstorming with them is actually my favorite part of all of this) and when I'm not sitting at my computer, I'm out trying new things, learning new places and taking more photographs than I will ever know what to do with.  Because my camera isn't exactly high tech, I also spend a lot of time editing photos (cropping, lightening, deleting) and putting the site name on the photo itself before uploading it to an online album and only then can I finally figure out where I'm going to use it on which of the five sites.  When I take a break to eat or watch TV, I have magazines to read and those, then, give me more ideas for research and, of course, for things I need to add to one of my site's aStores.  Those of you who know me, know that I love to shop, so when I see something I can't have that I think is amazing, it goes into those stores in the hopes that you'll enjoy it, too.  Last, but not least, I have to write my posts.  Inserting links and pictures is actually the quickest part (not to mention it's a lot of fun).  The writing and editing portion is absolutely the hardest part for me right now.  And that is why I need to, as I said before, make time for myself.  Really, for my own sanity.  Or what is left of it.

So how does one do that, exactly?

With all the writing, researching and editing madness, you might think there is no way that brain downtime would involve more writing.  But more writing is exactly what I need - but I need it to be for a different purpose: (1) I need a way of learning from other writers, (2) I need a sort of lightweight workshop to work through the crap that every type of artist inevitably has to create in order to get to their true inspiration, and (3) I need to remind myself not only why I do what I do but all the wonderful things it does for me.


Learning from Others  

Whether it's a Craigslist posting for likeminded individuals or a group you find on MeetUp.org, getting together with other people who do what you do (especially if your art is not what you do for a living, or if you work from home) is very important both for perspective and because it gives you a break from yourself.  As a blogger, I spend a lot of time by myself, writing and reading things out loud.  I even laugh out loud at things I say/write because there's no one else here to do it.  Well, okay, it's really more about establishing a voice.  In any case, I may not get lonely, but I might go a little cuckoo if I don't get out of my own head once in a while.  I have wonderful people in my life to talk to about the LostGirls sites, but sometimes it's hard for me to talk about anything else.  So I went on MeetUp.org this week and I found a group of writers in my area.  Our weekly tasks are to submit our writing and help edit everyone else's.  Wish me luck, next Saturday will be my first meeting with them.



For the Lightweights  

It's not so much that the workshop I chose is for lightweights, it's just that I'm choosing to do it from a book, instead of actually going somewhere and participating with a large group of people.  My stepmother gave me The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron in 1999.  I have started (but never finished) this book more times than I can count and I may not finish it this time, either.  But every time I need exercises to do or just a reminder that I'm being melodramatic when I throw myself on the ground and say my writing is hopeless, I crack the spine on this book and come to my senses.  I have also found that every time I mention this book, there always seems to be someone around who is either familiar with it or, as I found during my first month with it back in '99, is actively using this book.  You may notice, as well, that it isn't The Writer's Way.  Although there are a ton of writing exercises, The Artist's Way is a book for anyone, even people who feel like they haven't an ounce of creativity in their souls.



Things I'm Grateful For  

When I pulled The Artist's Way off my bookshelf this morning, I noticed my old Gratitude journal out of the corner of my eye.  My very empty Gratitude journal, that is.  I'm fairly certain I bought it just for the cuteness (knowing the premise, you can really write out your gratitude in a Mead notebook from WalMart just as easily), but since I already have one, I decided to make it a point to write down something I'm grateful for every night, before I go to bed.  The Artist's Way will sit on top of my laptop (so I force myself to write before diving into my day) and the Gratitude journal will sit on the table next to my bed so that I can remind myself, how good my life really is and how happy I am to be living it, every night.  Who knows, maybe I'll even sleep better because of it.

Maybe none of these things will make my writing better, but I do believe that the combination of methods and my strong will to keep doing what I love will result in some kind of improvement.  Next challenge, crochet?

Do you have a method or technique that helps you keep doin' what you do?  Throw us a bone by leaving a comment on this post.