A Virtual Chat With Friends

Facing a blank page awaiting your thoughts - it's amazing how stressful that can be for some folks. I've pondered what makes me return again and again to that blank page with determination to create meaningful prose. For me, it’s the pleasure of sharing. There are many things I care about and want to celebrate. My mother had many friends with whom she often got together and she loved to talk on the telephone. She shared. I’m in a different setting and a different time. My way of sharing is maybe less immediate and less intimate, but I’m doing it in a way that will last over time and, hopefully, touch lives beyond my immediate circle.

For ten years I've taught writing. It started out at my Dad's senior center as a Write Your Life Class to encourage folks to get something down for posterity about their unique experiences wending their ways through time. (That there's no such thing as time is a subject for a more esoteric blog.) Those who joined the class were not published writers but because my philosophy is: Writers should be read! They began to pick up on my enthusiasm and encouragement about their pieces finding a home in a publication somewhere. Since that time, I've had one win a national memoir contest sponsored by the Greyhound Bus Company, two in the class were picked to appear in the New York Times best-selling book by Willard Scott titled, The Older The Fiddle, The Better The Tune, one sold a column to a regional magazine, one had her humor piece, the first piece she'd ever sent out, purchased and published by the Christian Science Monitor, all in the class currently (now about fifteen) have now been published somewhere, some many times. I'm bragging for them, I'm excited for them. What a high to see your name in print.

I salute anyone who has the courage to face that blank page. It’s been said that the largest reason writers are not published is that they do not send out what they have written – I believe that. I had a writing instructor once admonish, "You know how to write. Don't spend time in grammar classes or obsess so much you never send something out. You can have people and even your computer help you clean up your piece for spelling or grammar."

If you have faced that blank page but don't know how to put a piece in the right format to send to a magazine, pick up a copy of The Writer's Market (it comes out yearly so there are a lot a second hand stores.) It shows the desired format, lists magazines and what they want and has simple articles on how to send pieces out. There are markets for everyone. If you haven’t published before look around at regional publications, even newspapers, as a way to start.

You’ll write if you are destined to, if that becomes your way of sharing. My mother, though, didn’t fret over not putting her words more formally on a page. She imparted much insight and knowledge and touched many lives in her way. I hope the insights I offer here make you think or give you a laugh or just comfort you in some way as evidence others have lived your experiences. I’m approaching this blog as a virtual chat with friends.