FIRST THOUGHTS ON DAY 1 OF THE MARCH SOLSC! #SOL16

I am participating in the Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOLSC; #SOL16) 

hosted by Two Writing Teachers. 

Each day for the month of March I will be posting a "Slice of Life". 

Please feel free to stop back and check out my other posts here.

Write every day...EVERY day! Wow, this truly will be challenge.

But, I think it's what I need.

I have a tendency to watch from the sidelines. To think about and talk about what I want to do. That's where I've been with writing. Last summer I stumbled across Teachers Write and I lurked, watched, thought...but did very little writing. Then I went to the Pacific Coast Literacy Institute where we wrote each morning with Linda Rief. That writing and talking about writing and writer's notebooks with Linda and Penny Kittle was inspiring. The need to write, the want to write was kindled inside me.

But, I left the conference and it continued to be a need, a want...but still, no writing!

I waited to find the perfect notebook...the perfect pen...the perfect idea...the perfect time...the perfect plan...

I want to stop waiting!! The need and the want to write are still smoldering inside me. I'm looking forward to this challenge and this community to fan the flames and allow me to truly become the writer I want to be. The writer I need to be. Once, I thought of myself as a writer. I want to rediscover that part of myself.

The One Little Word that kept calling to me this year is "DO"...this challenge will push me to DO the work. Not stand by and watch others, not think about it, not plan for it...Do the work. BE a writer.

That is my perfect plan. To DO it! When I'm tired, when I'm busy, when I have no ideas...I'm diving in to this challenge, and scary as it may be...I will DO it! Thanks for joining me on this new adventure!

Slice of Life Tuesday: A Slice of Writing and Project Life

As I embark on a new quest of my writing life, I sit and think "I don't know what to write,"...across the room, my 9 year old bemoans, "I don't know what to say!"

It's project night...my favorite. Even more, his favorite! Projects are not popular in my house. We all have a tendency to procrastinate. Add in this is a project for my 9 year old. My "I hate to write!"; my "I don't know what to say!"; my crying, whining, "I can't think..." writer.

So, as I sit here writing the second post on my new blog and my very first slice of life, my second born is tapping his pencil, staring at the title slide of his presentation not knowing where to begin.

Sadly, I have not been a practicing writer for many years. I've wanted to get a blog up and running for years, and recently I've been repeatedly blessed and inspired with the revelation that writing teachers need to be writers (much more on this later!). So, I am beginning to write. I have begun my blog. I have begun to slice!

But even more instrumental in the push to get me writing is this boy, the one who has written nothing the entire time I have written this post! He needs to see me writing. I need to experience the stuck and struggle he experiences so I can better empathize and help him. He needs to know that I will struggle with him...I will think with him...I will write with him.

Better Late Than Never!

Finally....

I have wanted to start a blog...have thought about starting a blog...have said I was going to start a blog...have wished I had started a blog...for...well let's just say, for a very long time!

So, finally...the blog exists. I am here. And I am ready to write. To share. To connect.

As 2016 started and I saw many people posting and blogging about their One Little Word for the year, the word that kept calling to me was DO. Blogging is one of many things I've had a tendency to talk about, think about, and plan to do. It's time to stop thinking, planning, and talking about it. This is my year to DO.

So, welcome to my little corner of Creative Chaos.