in between writing

This blog will never only be about writing because life happens in between writing one piece and starting another. Life is what inspires, calms, and often knocks us down. In my creative writing classes, I regularly heard that it's wise to write about what you know. During a workshop, one young woman read her story about an embalmer, and it was great! Why? Because her mother was an embalmer, and she was familiar with the science behind it. I'm not saying that every bit of our lives should be documented in writing (although some people abuse the use of Facebook for such publications), BUT we should take what we enjoy, what hurts, what we've experienced and run with it in any and every direction that makes sense to us as writers and as readers. I say all of this because I will often post about day-to-day things--things that may not seem to be important in isolation, but may add up to something greater. For example, the nail polish in my previous post... totally unimportant. However, if I should ever decide to write about a girl preparing for her first school dance, I may choose to include the color of her nail polish: First Kiss, and that my friends, may be a very significant detail once the story unravels.