*This is a response to a free-writing prompt, so that means I don’t proofread or edit what I write before I post it. I’m supposed to just write what comes to mind without filtering it, and then publish the result. Therefore, I have only fixed major spelling errors. Everything else is un-corrected. In other words, don’t judge my grammar or anything like that.
Today’s prompt was to free-write at least 400 words. Actually, I skipped a prompt (#18, I think), because it just didn’t interest me. I’ve really tried to stretch my writing abilities with these prompts, even trying things that didn’t appeal to me or seem to fit with my blog. Other times, I’ve tried to make the prompts fit, like adding an art twist or something like that. But there’s no point in forcing myself to write stuff I’m not interested in, and I really don’t care about writing stories. Thus, I make the executive decision to just skip that prompt and move on to the next one, which was much more my speed.
I’ve started to really like free-writing. It makes me write without thinking, and it makes me force myself to just keep going and then publish what’s left at the end. I’m almost done with these daily prompts. There’s 20 and I think this is number 19. I really do think that I’ve gained a lot from doing these, even if I haven’t always been crazy about the results, I’ve written for almost 20 days straight, give or take a day or two when I was just too tired to write. As I’ve said before, my life is super busy, and fitting in writing can be harder than writing itself. However, I think I really have succeeded it building a daily writing habit, which is what these prompts were supposed to be about. I’ve also discovered new styles and ways of writing and things like that. I wrote a few personal prompts, like the one about conversations. I liked that post, even though I was a little scared to publish it, to be honest. I’ve never been one for sharing my inner thoughts and feelings on the internet, but I’m glad I tried it. I hope that I will be more able to write regularly again after I’ve finished all 20 prompts. I’ve missed writing about things I care about, and even though it’s clearly going to be more difficult to write when I’m not given prompts anymore, I think I’ve made enough progress that I can give it a better try. Plus, I guess I have more strategies or at least experience for coping with being blocked and stuff like that. I’ve learned not to edit myself too much like I did before. Also, excitingly, a local art gallery that I’ve known for a few years asked me to write an article for their newsletter, and it should be published soon. It’s so exciting.
I signed up for Blogging 201, which starts later this month. It’s more about establishing your blogging presence than it is about writing, but I can definitely use help in that area, too. I want to do Writing 201, but that isn’t being offered in July,. I’ll do it as soon as it’s available again.
Finally, I’ve recently discovered the world of MOOC, which are these online courses that are free and available to loads of people from some really great colleges. I signed up for two, and one is going on now, so I just started working on that. It’s about historical fiction, both in the past and in the contemporary literary scene. Look for me to maybe post about that, according to what inspires me. There’s one about fairytales that starts in a few months, and I’m really excited about that too. I just realized that I look forward to seeing what a day’s prompt is going to be, and I didn’t used to look forward to writing for a long time. I still struggle with being too tired and busy, like I said before, but at least I have more motivation to press forward. Unless I become involved so greatly in these courses that I go back to being writing lazy, I think I’ve made real progress. I’m going to be excited to see what my last prompt is tomorrow, and also to move forward with writing more and feeling good about it once this series of prompts is over. Out!
A Scholarly Skater 