Some days we start the day angry because we forget, word-love begins wherever you find yourself.
I’m ten minutes late for my writing sprint. I’ve been busily
networking and sort of puttering until now, finally now I am writing.
It is a big blessing to have a set “writing time” with friends every day, especially with friends that are all around the world. Creativity separately together is one of my greatest joys.
Somehow the slight competitive nature for word counts combined with the interesting tidbits we tend to share along the way has made this time nearly sacred for me. Nearly instead of always simply because it is Summer and my kids take the forefront in the Summer.
I have trained my friends though. Saturday I was sitting at the kitchen table writing in my notebook when a friend called and then immediately apologized for “interrupting my writing time.” Eleven a.m. to Twelve Noon Pacific time from Monday to Friday is my time. It is a daily date to keep my love affair with words spicy.
I write morning pages as well, this morning on my front porch when it was still bearable outside. I even managed to write haiku and take a few photos.
When I neglect these word-love dates, not only my writing suffers – the rest of my life suffers as well.
Recently one of my daughters said to me in a rather huffy moment, “And you’re always angry!” and it stopped me in my tracks. “Me, angry?” The statement bothered me so much, I decided to ask my other daughter, the ever objective Katherine.
Her response, “Well, you are angry more often than you used to be.”
I could blame it on melanoma or stress or a myriad of other things, but since I have been back on my writing dates and spreading word-love around, suddenly – my anger has gone down. I smile more at strangers and they smile back. Some even chit chat with me, which is one of my favorite secret delights.
Right now my writing friends are working on dissertations, novels, blog posts and I believe one of us may be crocheting. We encourage, we laugh, we make up silly games and even have traditions.
Even as I write I can assist my daughter who is grading papers for a college professor. We chatted about plagiarism and how to help these students to understand what can be used and what can’t be used.
If you find yourself on a higher than usual anger scale, go on twitter and type in #wordmongering. It’s a hashtag where people write 24 hours a day at the top of the hour. You may just tweet something like this, “Is anyone “wordmongering” on the next :00? I’m new and would like to join!” Even if no one happens to be on at that hour, you will get responses and before you know it you too will be happily writing alongside some new friends.
If I didn’t know any better, I would even say my writing practice has made the mornings cooler! Somehow I can write while sitting on my front porch before the temperature climbs above 100 degrees later in the day!
Now that, word-love friends, is surely anger and frustration turned into pure word-love joy.
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