Let Social Media Inspire You…

“Why is writing so much harder for me than it is for everybody else?” — every novelist ever, secretly to themselves, all the time

— Lev Grossman (@leverus) April 28, 2015

Assignment #5 for Writing 101 of Blogging University is to “Let social media inspire you.” One of the goals of Writing 101 is to tap into new and unexpected places for post ideas. And social media can be a great source of inspiration.

I have been a big reader all my life. Reading was always my escape from my ordinary life. So naturally, I have always wanted to write. I wanted to write books that allowed readers the temporary escape that I have found in so many books.

However, just because you WANT to write…does not make you a writer, sadly! It seems that reading and writing are really two different things and just because you can do one well doesn’t always mean you can do the other well. This little fact has been a thorn in my wanna-be-writer’s side!

In my head, I write beautifully, descriptive sentences that convey feelings and emotions and what the character is thinking, as well as, describing their location in such detail that you can see and smell and taste and feel everything that they are experiencing. In actuality, I write sentences such as, “See Spot run.” While perfectly acceptable for a children’s book…it is a bit lacking for an escape from adulthood.

I blame it on my many “barn mentors” who I have looked up to over the years. Working at a barn means you are constantly doing something. There is never nothing to do…something always needs doing! It is just a matter of where it falls on the priority list as to when it gets done. And it is all about efficiency. Because so much needs to be done, you always have to be thinking about the next thing on the list that needs doing. Never go anywhere with an empty wheelbarrow or empty hands. You may have just finished your last stall of the day, and emptied the last of the manure, but on your way back to put the wheelbarrow away, you may as well grab that pile of feed that has to go to the feed room, which you are going to be passing on your way. You may be getting a small break to eat your lunch but seeing how you are going to walk right by the laundry room, you might as well grab the load of dirty saddle pads and put a load of laundry on before you head out…cause then when you come back from lunch, you can throw that load into the dryer, and grab the load of polo wraps to roll and put away in the tack room…and on and on it goes. Never go anywhere with empty hands!

Writing is so NOT about efficiency!! Why would you say “The dog has soft, black fur”, when you could say “The soft fur of the dog felt like silk against my skin and her black coloring glistened as it absorbed the sunlight, reflecting it back as a perfect, deep, dark mirror.” (and just to prove my point…I came up with the first example…the second one was an example I found for descriptive text examples.)

Yet, despite my lack of skill for writing, the desire persists…so…I continue to strive to become a writer of books that allows one to escape into the world that they have created, at least for a little while.