Only in a 48 Hour Day

I feel horrible. I have barely written all week. I suppose that's a bit of a lie. I have wrote quite a bit: essays, posts for classes, outlines for projects. I almost dread Spring Break. Right before and right after Spring Break usually means double the work. I have four projects and two presentations. It is nothing I cannot handle, it just means when I am finally done with work and have an hour to a half-hour to myself, I usually spend it unwinding and not writing. If I want to ever publish something, I have to learn, that even if only a half-hour, I must take that free time to write and add writing to the list of things that calm me down. I only have a weak excuse but even if I cannot write this week, Spring Break and all its projects will be over soon and I will have time again.

Dare to be Different

No less true words have been spoken than, "we don't want to be noticed because we're different" (37). At least, it is not true for writers. I am reading The Making of a Story by Alice LaPlate for a class, and that is where I found this quote. The passage continued, "We want to make sure that we dress appropriately, speak appropriately, act appropriately. Well, creative writing is the one area where you don't want to be 'appropriate'" (37). I have found useful information in the book thus far but this quote did not sit well. While I never break any social norms that would shock anyone, I certainly do not try to hide my differences to keep from being noticed. I am proud of my differences. I believe that the truly creative are different and they do not care if anyone notices. Writers live on a different wavelength, everything is a story, everything has a reason behind it and it is our jobs to invent that reason. I am not sure how "different" I actually am but I want to be noticed and I want to be different from others who are noticed because that is how you get noticed.

Long Overdue

I've wanted to start this blog since January but annoying things like school and work keep getting in the way (okay, guilty tumbler has too). The plan is to write about writing (and I guarantee I'll get sidetracked by things like music and NASCAR). Anyone who reads and writes knows the topic "writing" entails endless possibilities.
First, I want to give credit where credit is due. I did not come up with that title. It's from a quote from a movie I'm sure I refer to endlessly: The Lord of the Rings. 
"It's like the great stories, Mr. Frodo; the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end... because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was, when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer. Those are the stories that stayed with you, that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think,  Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only the didn't... because they were holding on to something." -Samwise Gamgee

The stories that stayed with you. Those are the stories I intend to write and to write about. Those few words explain why I read and write. I want to write stories that stay with people and when I find one myself, it's magic.