Writings & Life

Monday mornings involve a world that only exists on my head - and on paper.

Good Monday Morning.

I should do this more often.

Normally, I’d be behind my work screens catching up on emails and reviewing tasks I need to annoy the Attorneys to do. Today, (here in the states for my out of US readers) I’ve got it off thanks to the many sacrifices of the veterans we observe on this glorious Memorial Day.

This was the date that always kicked off summer. Parades, cookouts, early fireworks, it was summer in bloom.

It’s a cold morning here in West Virginia so I’m not feeling summer. High of 66 is not high enough for me to want to bake in the sun.

Lately, I’ve been really leaning into my writings: Dabbling between a fictional horror story and my memoir. If you drew a circle you’d see a close resemblance of the two.

Why write a memoir? I don’t know, why write anything? I’ve processed a lot of my life and when I share bits of it on here, people seem interested, so why not?

Now the fun part. The Vampires.

Yes, I’m writing vampires. Their characters keep me up at night and so sometimes the pen demands a paper and I find myself creating a scene in the wee hours of the night.

I’m learning as a writer that writing takes many forms: plotting, scribbling random thoughts you have while you should be working into a notebook, and thinking.

A whole lot of thinking.

You know, when you picture a writer, you probably picture someone dedicated to their typewriter for hours upon hours. And maybe that is so, but I think now adays the modern writer juggles a lot.

We juggle writing and submitting short stories to be paid for. We juggle ideas and plot. We open Word documents and suddenly can’t remember our characters names. We research things like “do vampires have shadows?” and “popular names in 1914.”

Writing is a little bit of researching, a lot of creating, and way too much thinking.

“Just freakin write!” I say to myself, “we can make it pretty later.”

I’m finding it hard to not self-edit as I write. Just get the words down like the pros say and we will edit it later.

But I- no buts! Okay.

So, if you’re wondering what I’ve been up to, I’m writing a lot. I write at my day job as a paralegal where most of the time it’s legal jargon I don’t understand. I write on Threads. I write in my phone, in a notebook, on my laptop.

Oh, and I decided to start a new series that will be debuting soon - the Neighborhood Notes. I don’t know, still working on that title.

I hope whatever you’re doing today it is something you want to do.

Take care.

-Liz