Having never participated in a blogging event, I hesitantly scanned the events page and looked at some of the early blog posts for the assignment. Blabberwockying shared a six word story challenge by Benedict Nicholson. This event seemed like a good place to start. Six words. How hard could it be? Hmm. It’s actually a bit more challenging than I had originally anticipated – but, I enjoyed it.
This week’s prompt: LOSS
My attempt:
She lay down, clutching his pillow.
Today’s assignment: publish a post based on your own, personalized take on a blogging prompt. The prompt I chose is Pens and Pencils. When was the last time you wrote something substantive — a letter, a story, a journal entry, etc. — by hand? Could you ever imagine returning to a pre-keyboard era?
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/pens-and-pencils/
Assignment: Write a post that builds on one of the comments you left yesterday.
After visiting several blogs, one really stood out for me. Spiritual Dragonfly shared a post called The Beauty of the Abandoned and Forgotten. She opened with this quote (and I liked it):
“What can I say, I’m a sucker for abandoned stuff, misplaced stuff, forgotten stuff, any old stuff which despite the light of progress and all that, still vanishes every day like shadows at noon, goings unheralded, passings unourned, well, you get the drift.” ~Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves~
The title, The Beauty of the Abandoned and Forgotten, initially caught my attention but the photos stirred my imagination. I love abandoned things and forgotten places. It’s like they are waiting to be found, wanting to share their stories. When I saw the first picture, an ivy covered door, the beginnings of a story tickled my brain:
Theodore Harding was tired – tired of eating beans, of sweeping the mill floors, and wearing a thread-bare coat…
When we think of courage, we often think of people doing extraordinary things in dangerous situations. While that is certainly true, courage is also daring to follow your dreams, to face your fears and persevere.
Many of us (writers) are introverts by nature. We are most comfortable in smaller groups and quite content being alone. In fact, alone time isn’t just nice, it’s a necessity. We seek out an empty room, sit behind our computer and type our hearts out.
This is where courage comes in. Whether we are blogging or working on a novel, we have to release our words, our thoughts, and ideas to the world. We are literally exposing our inner-selves.
That is scary. There’s no invisible shield to protect us from the scrutiny of our readers. Unfortunately, some of those readers aren’t going to like what we have to say – and that’s okay. What’s important is our reaction. We must refuse to be intimidated. We must be tenacious. Writing is our art. It is the way we express ourselves. It is as important as the air we breathe.
dsmcknight.com 