Writing about Writing!

 

When I retired I decided to start writing about things I wanted to do, was thinking about doing or actually doing in retirement. Since I really love to write but hadn’t done any for a long time, blogging seemed to be an ideal outlet for me. It didn’t require long writing sessions and I thought I could just put one out there whenever the urge hit. Most blogs are between five hundred to a thousand words. I like to write about five to seven hundred. Any longer than that gets boring, any shorter and it’s hard to fit what you want to really say into the space. My daughter-in-law helped me set up my site here, gave me some hints about hashtags and photos and here I am. This blog site costs about fifteen dollars a year (retirees do have to watch our pennies), gives a lot of support and advice and allows those of us who are newbies to really sink our teeth into the medium. I learned the sites that have free pictures to download and that it’s better to take your own photos. It’s a great opportunity to figure out the best shots, lighting. etc. Pictures do spur interest!

I started to write about things I thought would interest other retirees or those on the verge of retirement. I wrote about some savings retirees could find at stores in the area, about how sneaky pricing has actually cost money, about my day trips with friends, my foray into spending winters in Florida and our numerous trips to Cape Breton. But really how many times can you read my impressions about going down east? Even I started to lose interest! My writing became repetitive and felt like a chore but it was a great learning time for me so thank you for your patience.

My love of reading, writing, and language skills has been with me since I can remember. I read everything I could get my hands on; I always have and always will read. It helped me decide on my favourite fiction genre and helped me slog through textbooks as a student nurse and most recently, read and understand various government acts and laws. But I still prefer fiction.

I’m old-fashioned enough to prefer pen and paper. At the beginning stage, I don’t even correct misspelled words or bad grammar. Just forge ahead putting words on paper. I’m not even concerned about sentence or paragraph structure because that will all be corrected when doing my first or even my second draft. Yes I am doing drafts for my blog. I’m also starting with short outlines, maybe one sentence per paragraph because this forces me into good writing habits and helps tremendously when I want my story to make sense. It’s going to take practice that’s for sure.

Through this blogging process, I have learned that the internet is my friend. I “google” a lot for information or instructions on a project. I recently rejoined Pinterest, not because I’m a crafty sort but because I want more information on the art of writing. Just about everything I wanted is there for free and I set up files to save the information. If I wanted I could have locked it away in a secret file but why? Interested folks can get it for free from my pinterest account or just by using a simple search. It’s so easy.

At any rate, the urge to write again is really strong. I want, this time, to be entertaining for anyone reading my blog. I hope my writing improves enough to feel confident in starting a novel outline; maybe a novella.

 

 

 

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