Inspiration.

This is how it is with me:
I start with a feeling I want to write about. Yes, a feeling. This morning, the feeling was "Neglect".
I open the "New Post" link and click on a picture link.
I survey the pictures that come up, looking for just that connection to my initial feeling.
Then, I proceed to write about the concept, the feeling, elucidating around the picture.
Usually, I use my own pictures,easily retrieved, and totally accessible without anybody else's permission.
When I take a picture, I'm actually writing about what I see, storing that picture in my memory cells as though each picture is about a bigger story.
For this one, I noticed how I had abandoned this corner of my garden, all of my gardens, for months and months. I had no time, nor interest in anything else except my pain and grief at that time. I noticed how my self-absorption affected the rest of the world around me.


You know how there are seven deadly sins?  Neglect should be right at the top of the list. Neglect should be the original sin! Every evil deed starts with No Deed at all. A baby that is not loved and cared for, and cherished, that baby is doomed from the start. A teen who is not asked about her day, her activities, her friends, her concerns, will find attention elsewhere. So will a wife, a husband, even a pet.


Especially a pet. If you don't care for your pet, he'll end up being mean and disruptive when you are not around.  


Neglect is a negation of love. It says, I don't care.
Neglect is like rust. It will slowly eat up the core of that being, until nothing is left.




How about You? How is your process for writing your blog?

Watch your language!

Bandon Writers, circa 2009, a year after I joined, a year after two of its members died.
Since this picture was taken we lost two additional members who were not pictured here.  The entire group here is still writing, some of them also painting, and all of us meeting regularly on Monday mornings, rain or shine, holiday or not.

These folks still meet and discuss word choice, grammatical errors, obscure notations, and the ins and out of writing and publishing, I'm the second person from the right, standing up. The first person on the right is a famous writer, John Wadleigh, a.k.a Oliver Lange, author of Defiance, the plot adapted and rewritten for the movie Reds, starring Patrick Swatzie. He can still look at your work and give you a most chilling evaluation that summarizes what needs to be done to improve the piece.  He no longer frequents our little group regularly, but drops in now and then.

Nobody else in this picture is famous YET.  Ginney Eatherton is the most prolific, working on her third book, self published, and self promoted. Look for her Looping for Love and No Broken Bones at Amazon.

A group of friends with a single vision can do wonders. We know each other's personal lives and we know each other's genre, peculiarities, strengths and difficulties. We meet outside of Mondays' meetings too, to chat, to share a piece we are working on, to cry on each other's shoulders.

Go out there and find yourself a group.
Don't know of any?
Stop by the local eateries and ask the waitresses.
Check the library for contacts.
Scour the local papers and fliers.
Write a want ad.

Sure, you have on line support, people you have never met but love what you do and encourage you to  continue writing. You are satisfied with this arrangement. You get plenty of feedback on these sites too.

But, do you get friendship? Real, touching, knowing what motivates you, what keeps you up at night, what you really want to talk about when you ramble on?