For Authors
This week: Dig Out Those Memories Edited by: JACE More Newsletters By This Editor
1. About this Newsletter 2. A Word from our Sponsor 3. Letter from the Editor 4. Editor's Picks 5. A Word from Writing.Com 6. Ask & Answer 7. Removal instructions
Hi, I'm JACE , your guest editor for this week's For Authors issue.
I am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850.
--Henry Kissinger.
When you put down the good things you ought to have done, and leave out the bad things you did do - well, that's memoirs.
--Will Rogers.
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Dig Out Those Memories
The bulk of the official WDC 12th Birthday celebrations are done, though many user-sponsored activities will continue through the rest of the month. The overwhelming theme of these events is Birthdays.
"Writing.Com Party Central 2024!" listed three official WDC contests and some 20 other contest and activities, many of which are still on-going. While it's hard to determine the actual number of stories, essays, poems and reviews generated by all these events, I think it's safe to say the number exceeds several thousand. That's a lot of activity for our authors.
More important is the creativity resulting by those members. Many contests required entrants to dig deep in their memory about a particularly memorable birthday of their own about which to write. I submit even if the story was never written, a great deal of retrospection went into considering what to write and whether to write about it.
The contemplation of the past gives one the opportunity to reflect on the events that shaped his or her path toward becoming an author/writer. [To be honest, I've always thought there was a distinction between an author and a writer, believing the former was someone who published their writing. Strictly speaking, that's not so according to Webster's Dictionary, and by extension, to Writing.Com, who labels members with items in their Port as Authors.]
The world around us is a constant source of ideas for stories to write. I'm convinced the oft-maligned writer's block is nothing short of the pressures of the world acting on us that keeps us from writing rather than a shortage of ideas to write about. Lord knows we all have personal issues that weigh us down from time to time.
The next time you feel little impetus to write, take some quiet time and look back in your memories for some small, but noteworthy event that you can place on paper. Writing can be great therapy, and that memory might not only lift your spirits but also set your creative leanings on fire.
Share some of the "real" you with the rest of us. They're called memoirs, and judging from the amount of stories written for the recent birthday festivities, they're definite fodder for authors.
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I clamped it down with one hand and gripped the side of the truck with whitened knuckles The girls made a grand parade of me; horns honked in celebration, people waved from their cars; I think the guys in the gas station whistled when my well-wishers turned the truck toward a car wash.
"Stop, stop!" I screamed. Were they serious? The roar of water cascading over a car in front of us competed with the blood thumping in my ears.
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As memorable as such rare days are, this particular one was more memorable than all others. Not just because it was my birthday but because that's the day the septic system stopped working. And when your septic system fails in the middle of winter with five feet of snow and ice on the ground, it's not only a problem, it's a catastrophic five-alarm emergency.
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WDC for your birthday, I'm making you the honoree
Of some of my hackneyed, pedestrian poetry.
You deserve better, and for that I am truly sorry, ...
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"Ann, why did you tell Jo and Anne that you're having a birthday party?" Of course, I explained that I had only told them that I was having a birthday. She responded, "Well, since you told them, I'll bake a cake and you can have your party."
Meanwhile, Ruby told Loma and Jo that no birthday party was planned for Ann, that Ann's mother had told her so.
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I walked on, my face downcast, hands buried in my jeans pockets. Countless cars passed me by on my way through town to the bus stop from where I'd get home, each of them a painful reminder of what had happened.
I wasn't so lucky. I was born on December 28, ... Not only does my birthday come at a bad time, I share it with my brother.
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Unfortunately for me, some things came up in my life and my motivation dropped. I couldn't log on as much. I found I had nothing to write about. My hope began to dwindle with each passing day until eventually, I stopped visiting. I lost all of my confidence and my ability to think I was good at anything. It makes me sad to think about it now, how much time I have lost with this wonderful community.
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I played an old bachelor game called 'Find the Smell' - and quickly won. It was me. I reeked. But it wasn't my body. It was my conscience.
"Play ball!"
Two words that spark a young boy's fancy, causing his imagination to soar to heights of which only youth can conceive.
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Since this is my first For Authors newsletter, I have no comments from previous issues. Please drop me a line when you get a moment; I'd love to hear from you.
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