Writing for Amusement

Lately, I have been eager to complete my morning exercise routine, and chores, so that I can move on to a real treat for me...writing. I have slowly been working on my memoir of growing up in a small, blue collar town during the 60's, and some days my memory gets jogged to a funny, or poignant event, and I will have to jot it down for the next writing time (usually during the afternoons). I have also been known to get up from a sound sleep and go jot something down for later translation during writing time. I enjoy the challenge of writing entries to this blog four days a week ( I don't believe in a five day work week) as it stimulates my thinking process and hones my writing skills. Most days the entry will take an hour to perfect, and yet the time goes by as if it were only five minutes, which is a good indicator that I am enjoying what I'm doing. I also write poetry and have done so for the past 30 years. Poems are a little tricky,  as usually I don't sit the computer and say to myself, I think I will write a poem now, although recently this occurred when a topic popped in my head and a poem was completed in 5 minutes... and it was good! Most of my poems come from nagging words strung together that will persist, then evolve into an original thought. Sometimes the meaning isn't crystal clear, but the words just seem right. Often the words rhyme, but it gives me more leeway if they don't. If there is a lot of emotion in what I want to say, I will let it spill out from my mind as fast as I can type (which is a pretty good clip) and I don't stop to edit until the full force of what I want to say is completed. Other times, if I am in a thoughtful, or expressive mindset, each sentence is carefully worded, then edited, before moving on to the next. Recently, I was doing my chores, when my mind imagined a place, gave it a name, and the plot of a novel starting surfacing. Now when I am walking to the store, or having a minute to stare out the window and think, my characters develop, or I hear dialogue, or see a scene or circumstance that gets stored for writing time. When I do sit down, I have long thought about the chapter and the writing becomes automatic... and its the coolest thing in the world!