Why Write?

 a Savage Chickens cartoon by Doug Savage

      Doug Savage, over at Savage Chickens, almost always makes me laugh. He draws wonderful cartoons, usually featuring chickens, and he does it all on post-it notes. Amazing!

       And while I chuckled, I wondered...Why indeed? Why do we write? It rarely pays--or doesn't pay much--and it can be incredibly frustrating and time-consuming. So why do we continue sitting down to a blank page day after day?

       Of course, if you're Pearl, you write because you have 1.8 million followers (and every day, 217 more add themselves to the list). She manages to conjure incredibly hilarious urban tales about riding the bus and her cubicle mates and her cats. If she didn't post, a disgruntled mob would rise up and wreak havoc.

          If you're Fireblossom or Mama Zen, who write mind-blowing, teeth-gnashing poetry (you gnash your teeth because you didn't write it), you write because...well, I guess they write because they must. Their words and their thoughts must be like a geyser that has to find a way to vent. (And if you're Marcia Gaye, another poet friend of mine, you write because you're so good at it and you win local and state poetry contests. (Has the madness gone beyond Missouri, Marcia? Let me know...)

      If you're Val, you write because the're a geyser inside of you, too, but it's a geyser of snarkiness. I think, if Val did not write, one of her kids or her bumbling husband or  one of the goats or chickens would...well, I think something unexpectedly horrific would happen to them. Plus, she likes to flaunt her knowledge of Seinfeld (she and I often have duels, but she is always the victor), along with every other television show, movie and song that's ever been written.

      If you're Donna Volkenannt, you write because you have to keep your pen limber for the next international Erma Bombeck humor contest. (She was the most recent winner.) Or the next anthology to come out. When a collection comes out, you'll invariably find a story by Donna.

     If you're Linda O'Connell, a fellow WWWP, you write because your keyboard's on fire. Linda has a writing goal, and she's burning to achieve it. (Ask her what the goal is. She might tell you.)

    And if you're one of the other WWWPs (Wild Women Wielding Pens)--Lynn Obermoeller, T'Mara Goodsell, or Beth M. Wood--you write because you're prodded and encouraged and cajoled and begged to write. The five of us support each other and keep each other on the writing path...

      Doug Savage, on his little biographical page, spoke about being an artist. He said, "Creativity is a bit like a stubborn weed that won’t die: the roots run deep enough that it will keep growing back under the right conditions."

        What simile would you use to describe the writing process or creativity? Or, what are the "roots" of your writing like? 



Today's Magpie Tale

          Magpie Tales--every Tuesday---has a photo or drawing to inspire you. Write a poem or a vignette. Tess Kincaid makes every Tuesday special. Below is mine.



                                                                        That photo,

the one from our trip

through the woods

to find Flat Creek...

it was crammed at the bottom

of a drawer.

Almost forgotten...

I pulled it out yesterday,

(the coldest day

my heart's ever seen)

and absently began to dig a line

into the slick surface.

The more I dug,

the more I thought:

Some change has to come.

With markers and white out,

I made the tree branches reappear

and allowed the arrow to surface,

ghost-like,

hovering over where we once stood.

If only real life was that easy---

having a giant sign in the sky,

pointing the way...



       Usually I look--hopefully--at my followers every time I post, to see if I have a new follower.  Imagine my surprise when my vigilance lapsed, and I then found not one but four new followers!

        Kim Sloggett and Lynn Obermoeller have just joined as followers.  Thank you.  Lynn, if you have a blog, please let me know and I'll slip in a link.   From the blogs she follows, I presume Lynn is a writer.  Thanks for checking out my blog.

       Kim is a fellow blogger, a writer, a teacher and is into pets big-time. Check out herblog about pets and her blog about teaching.  She's a writer, and after reading several of her posts (about the importance of getting to know your students, rewarding kids, and a humorous take on the mistakes we make), I can say that most teachers would enjoy her blog. Thanks again for becoming a follower, Kim. 

       Cathy C. Hall is a writer with countless publishing credits to her name. She recently included a link to a magazine story of hers. For those who still have their Christmas decorations up, or for those who are looking for a way to streamline their after-the-holiday routine next year, read her piece in Modern Senior Living. (She has a link, so you can read the piece--in the January edition, on page 6, without having to buy the magazine.) It's sharp and funny. Her blog is chocked full of links to contests and stories.  (If you click on her "Finding My Fame and Fortune" button, you can read a funny piece on smoking.) Cathy--thanks for following.

      Pearl writes about riding the bus, she writes about her holiday parties. (Which resulted in me preparing the best appetizer I've had in a long time and blogging about it. Check out my post on January 2 for the recipe and photos of this delicious bit of heaven.) Most of her posts are hilarious, but her warm, intropsective ones are just as good. (We laughed. We cried.)  When she falls flat on her face as a blogger, she is going to launch a new business--Pearl's Pap and Pedi (make sure you empty your bladder before you read that post so there is no "leakage" as you're reading it).  Seriously, she has almost 800 followers, so when you wonder why you don't have as many as you'd like, it's because Pearl is a blog-hog. Thanks, Pearl, for following...

       And if you're one of the 13 bloggers in the country who are not following Pearl's blog yet, peruse her posts. She takes the ordinary, makes it twistedly extraordinary.

Humor with Barbs

        If you want a well-needed chuckle, or your sense of humor runs like mine (way into the realm of sarcasm),check out this blog.  Her posts are brilliant.  You thought a depiction of a casual get-together would be a bit dry?  Think again.  Is corporate mumbo-jumbo dull?  Not with Pearl.  If you aren't already a follower, you will be soon...

        (Be sure to read Pearl's 3-part mystery about the death murder of her fish, Yang.  It was posted on December 15.  It's unbelievable.)

photo by katyekat30