Tag Archives: Writing

The Courage to Write

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http://visual.ly/track.php?q=http://visual.ly/creative-process-0&slug=creative-process-0The Creative Process

It takes courage to create something and put it out in the world, opening ourselves to the judgment of others.
An artist in any medium should be proud of themselves for doing it.
The act of posting your writing on a blog is courageous.
It doesn’t matter if it is deemed good or bad in the world’s eyes. If it is a sincere effort, it is courageous.
We can admire the writing of others and get inspiration for a topic by reading other posts.
But don’t fall into the self-defeating trap of comparing yourself to someone else and finding yourself lacking.
I am not being judgmental by saying this because I have been guilty of this very thing.
The act of writing is to create something of your own.
It comes from the one and only unique you.
Do you really want to be a copy of someone else?
We write because this is our form of creative expression.
Writing is what we were meant to do.
We know this is true because it makes us so happy to do it.
There is a place in the world for all kinds of writers.
And there is a place in the world for my writing and all of yours.

Too Much Information

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“Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.”–Gertrude Stein

This quote means that if you are getting a lot of input all day you can lose the ability to use your own judgment. I know if I am overloaded I can not think very well.

I am sure that the amount of information and pace at which it is presented has grown exponentially since this quote was made.

I am one who becomes easily overloaded. Just reading a page crammed with print and images is overwhelming to my visual processing. I feel uncomfortable and resistant to the demand made on my system to absorb it all.

If you want me to get your message, you need to present it in smaller segments. Otherwise, I may not be able to get through it all or, even if I do read it all, I will miss something as my eyes skip over parts of it.

Information overload is a type of assault for sensitive souls and introverted types. It is a draining experience to have a lot of sensory input coming at us all at once.

Information is a type of sensory stimulus and along with all the other sensory stimuli we are processing out in the world we can quickly reach a tipping point.

Then we need to withdraw from it all and go somewhere quiet for a while to recover. We need time to process.

All the information can be a kind of brainwashing. So much information coming at you, competing for your attention.

Information in print, visual images, and audio. Cell phones chirping to notify us we have an email or text message waiting.

There is a real danger that this constant distraction by random information keeps us from having time to think about anything meaningful or truly important for our lives.

All this information can cloud our awareness of life going on around us. It can keep us from living our lives.

Featured Image Information Overload or Filter Failure by Graham Steel

Introduction to Me and Blogging

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I started blogging to get practice with writing and as an experiment to see where it would lead and if I would like it. I started out blogging with a generational theme as a boomer then decided that I did not want to limit myself to one age group or topics related specifically to one age group. There are issues I am concerned about related to age, women, life and others.

When I was younger I always wanted to know people of different ages and backgrounds. So now I want to still do that  and not limit my writing. Only in that it applies to being human and my experience. I  can be funny, I think, but did not want to have that type of blog either where I made a joke of everything I am experiencing. I did do some writing like that at first.

I do not want to be an advice blog. I could probably manage to do that as well but have not wanted to so far. I would like to have a universal appeal and not be limited and not be preachy. I don’t want to have to write in a way that is calculated to appeal to an audience but is not really authentic to me.

Now we know what I do not want to do. So no one will want to read what I write? 🙂

The  main thing for me is to develop my skills and find my voice. I see the blog as a way to do that and to connect with other writers who may share my interests or enable me to develop some new interests as well.

I do like writing about my interests like movies, books, California, my life and some of my early life experiences and issues important to me now.

I chose the name of my blog, Notes Tied on the Sagebrush, based on an image that came to mind  of someone writing and not knowing who would read it, or if anyone would, and the notes being a way of self-expression.

I may want to begin a more ambitious writing project as in a book eventually. And would not like the blog to take up a lot of time that I could use to do research and other writing.

I have found I do look for feedback with the blogs I have written already. That can get to be unhealthy though, in that one can spend their time looking to see who likes their posts.

Wasn’t Facebook involved in a project like that to try to influence people’s behavior by giving them what they had liked in the past? I could become addicted to “likes.”

Featured Image of Blog Writer by Mike Licht, NotionsCapitol.com

Birthday Flower Image by jinterwas

Birthday Flower Image by jinterwas

Guilty Pleasure

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When I am really into one of my blog topics, I can spend the whole day sitting in front of my computer. I am there happily researching articles and other sources I find on the internet that pertain to my topic. Jotting down a few notes, links, and then looking for images on Creative Commons that will be the visual components.

I have had some guilty feelings over my lack of exercise. My treadmill sits abandoned behind me as I write and looks at me reproachfully. I have even thought about how my sitting like this is not the best for my back. Well today I was absolved of my guilt by a very funny post I saw on Hyperallergic by Hallie Bateman entitled:

” The Art of Posture.”

Thank You Hallie for relieving my guilt and giving me a good laugh.

Books, Pens and Paper

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Morning Note with Coffee

I love books. Books printed on heavy paper with hard cloth covers. Have you noticed that a new book has a certain smell. Is it the paper or the glue that is binding the pages or the ink? Old books smell musty. I like holding a book better than reading off an electronic device.

I like good quality paper to write on. With different colored pens. When I was in elementary school I used to have fountain pens with ink cartridges that you inserted into the barrel. There is beauty in using a fountain pen. Writing with liquid ink is like painting the words on the paper.

Maybe I was a scribe in a former life or worked in the ancient library in Alexandria.  Copying books onto papyrus scrolls.

Tying Notes On The Sagebrush

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I just wrote a blog about going through transitions. Making it sound like that once you go through one it is a done deal and you are finished. I am discovering that you can think you are done with it and surprise, surprise! here it comes again. I think I am starting into another transition. Is it because I did not work through the last one completely or is it because I am making a change?

Since I have started my blog I have found myself lying awake in the middle of the night thinking about my life and where it’s going. Maybe it is the change I am making by writing a blog. Change triggers the transition process according to William Bridges who has developed a theory of transitions.

Geez, do I need this? Not sleeping. Having my equilibrium disrupted. Have I opened a can of worms with this blogging?

I went on the Community Page to get feedback and everyone is so young looking. Can they appreciate my style and humor? Can anyone appreciate my style and humor? At least one blogger was kind and “liked” my blog. Some of my friends and family have been supportive.

All right, take a deep breath! I started off with a bang like my daughter said. I actually got a piece published on an online magazine, BetterAfter50. I was on a cloud. I was over the moon.

Then I decided I can write a blog. Why not? It is a dream of mine to be a writer. But it is hard to put yourself out there. A bit scary.  Is anyone reading it or listening?

I was thinking about a film in which one of main characters is a woman living out in the middle of the frontier in the American West. Her husband goes off on some business and does not return. He had died when his horse stumbled and fell on top of him, trapping him. She is waiting for him, and in the meantime, trying to hold things together for her family. She is very lonely and writes notes about her feelings and ties them on the sagebrush. One day a cowboy finds the notes. (The film is “Conagher” with Katherine Ross and Sam Elliott based on a novel by Louis L’Amour.)

Writing a blog is like that. Tying notes on the sagebrush.