. Spinning .

Every day I find more and more links to writers and writing related sites. Wish I had thought of this searching a few years ago. But then, blogging is fairly new, and even the .com’s have journals as part of their site or allow links to journals at least. Online forums are another great way to stay in touch with like-minded individuals who can spur each other on with praise and criticism to make writing an ongoing project. While it may take up much of my time in the research and that means I’m not doing creative writing myself, I know that what this means for my own future, and for that of others I hope, is a constant source of inspiration once the links are set in place on Spinning, Garmhos, or in my own list of Bookmarked sites (not to worry, I’m sharing all the best ones with you!).

It seems that most of us get all fired up around a course or seminar and then tend to slack off once that’s over and done and creative efforts fall back behind life’s other demands in our routine until writing becomes sporadic at best, willed back to the surface on the words, “How’s that book coming?” Guilt then becomes the stimulus, and while I don’t think that’s a bad thing—I for one am grateful to it as a primary driving force in my life—it’s a danger of becoming a “hafta do” instead of a “wanna do”.

We all can set our own limits on how much time we put into our craft every day, week or month. But the most important thing I’m finding out is that it’s necessary to keep the gold ring in our sights at all times, and when the time is right, reach out, grab it, and go for another ride on the merry-go-round. Hope I can provide the gold ring here and on Garmhos for all of us to hang onto.

There is a post on Garmhos that refers to the lackadaisical trend in writing in e-mail and blogs. I was caught in one myself grammatically in a comment to Jerz’s Literacy Log and am made more aware now of the use of particularly a dictionary while firing off our thoughts.

Spinning has a million (not quite) links to grammar as well as spelling aids, and when easily accessible, I try to use those as well as the books that line my computer shelves.

For a good part of my writing life (since about age 8 to now, but with sabbaticals of years in between) I have read even more voraciously and consistently. And sadly, for many years in my most creative and driven periods of writing, I purposely stopped reading. My reasoning behind this planned self-restriction was simple and based in integrity. I felt that I would be too influenced by what I had just read, too able to “lift” the ideas of other writers who had left their site bookmarked in my mind; their words having been filed away but accessible to that part of the brain that without conscious effort retrieves the information stored within. This would cause me to doubt my own writing as original and the devils seeded in my brain by nine years’ worth of black-habited nuns prohibited me from even thinking I could be thinking someone else’s thoughts without branding myself a thief.

But for all my honest efforts, I find that what I write is the sum total of all that I have read. My writing voice is no kin to my speaking voice in language style and use, but there is some family resemblance to Poe, DuMaurier, Shakespeare, King, Munro and on and on, everyone I’ve read; all ancestors of my writing mind that guide in a cacophony of voices funneled into the words that show up on my paper and screen. An inheritance of literature: A nose or knows here, eyes or I’s here, they’ve all become a part of me regardless of my well-meant intention to keep them away.

But age brings with it at least some insight and wisdom. And, a more honest approach to life and self. I can admit to myself at least that I am a decent writer, a bit better than average perhaps if compared to all of humanity. I can accept reading as a stimulant to write. I can give credit to those writers who have impressed upon me their style and thoughts with their words. Every achievement is a combination of learning and talent. Rocket Engineers are not born knowing how to send a man to the moon. A writer is born with ideas, but without the experience of reading, could not put words together to offer writing that makes worthwhile reading. And lucky for the writer, this particular learning process offers total enjoyment as well.