Writers write.

 

This is a photo of all of the books about writing that I have collected over the years. Some of them I have read more than once. Some more than twice. Some I have never finished and at least one I never started. That one called What If? near the top of the stack was a book my high school English teacher used when she was teaching a unit on creative writing. She had a well-thumbed copy on her desk and I asked her about it, found it at the bookstore, and bought one for myself. One of the few teachers I had who left a lasting, positive impression on me. Just today I discovered that there is a longer, more involved version of that book that is used in college writing classes and I am tempted to get that to add to my pile. 

Where am I going with this blog post? I don't know. I've just been thinking about writing. I've been thinking about all the years in which I have wanted to be a writer and all the years in which I haven't written consistently. There have been huge gaps of time in which I didn't bother writing any kind of fiction at all. 

I started and finished 4 (maybe 5?) stories when I was taking a couple of fiction classes in my 40s that earned me a creative writing associate's degree. Over the past couple of years, I got a good start on a couple of different stories, but just that--starts. No finishes. Most of the time I don't even have starts. Most of the time I don't even have random exercises. 

I really want to change that. I really want to figure out how.