Prologue

In August 2004, I signed up for this blog. My thought on that hot, windy August day — (I really cannot remember the weather. This is a safe assumption, however, given that I live in Oklahoma.) — was that crafting a post at least once a week would help me get back into writing. When I was in high school and college, I dreamed of making a living as a writer. I could see me, each day pounding away at the keyboard, which would sit next to a 5-inch stack of completed pages. I’d be clad in my jammies, because inspiration would strike me in the middle of the night, and I’d be wearing dark-rimmed glasses and sporting a ponytail with just enough wisps of hair falling in front of my face to show that I was deep in thought.

That’s the dream. The reality goes more like this: Every couple of months, I sit with my fingers on the keyboard, typing, then immediately deleting, three-word phrases such as “The night was ...,” or “Allison could tell ...,” or “Jake walks toward ...,” hoping that something would spark the beginnings of a story. There are no completed pages next to my keyboard, because I cannot even formulate a plotline. I wear the clothes I wore to work, because inspiration has yet to strike in the middle of the night. I no longer own dark-rimmed glasses, and because of frustration, I pulled on my hair too much to keep my unruly tresses contained within any hair-holding device. The “wisps” I dreamed of consist of every strand on the right side of my head.

I blame the demands of a full-time job, housework, friends, family and the amount of time I spend vegging out in front of the TV for preventing me from getting passed my writer’s block. I read enough advice on the subject to know that the best thing I can do is keep writing. So, I thought this blog might inspire me to spend more time working toward this goal. I figured that I doesn’t matter what I write about, just that I write SOMETHING. Or, at least, that was the thought back in August 2004. Seeing how this is my first post in more than year, I don’t think this has worked so far.

But then, last fall, a friend of mine started his own blog. I am always in awe at the sheer volume of words he posts each week. He comments on movies, novels, TV shows and comic books, and entertains his readers with his adventures, past and present. I haven't done as much writing as he does in one day in ages. AGES. But you know what? I think the blog thing worked for him, because he’s got tens of thousands of words on paper for a story he’s working on. (I have yet to read it. But, I think I be able to make time for it between watching Lost and My Name is Earl. Having read some of his past work, though, I’m sure it’s good.)

My thought now is that if it worked for him, maybe it will work for me, too. So this is me, trying again.

This week, so far, I’ve written 528 words (not including this sentence).