Skip to main content

Wrote First Short Story About My Life

I wrote the first of a series of short stories about my life this morning. I did it freestyle by hand lying on my bed, while the kids were asleep, and my husband was out running. In this relaxed state, I can hear the words flow out of me and I capture them on paper. The next round is to type it up and edit it. And then share it with others to undergo a series of revisions, revisions, revisions.

I'll decide what to do with them once I have them all or mostly completed. I'm leaning towards self publishing to a book which I could design myself, or posting them on my blog if I get desperate. I'm writing my life in different chapters the way I see it, or saw it at the time, and my reconciliation of the events that happened. I've been haunted by these stories for years if not most of my adult life. It's like they want to be written  and they show up all the time clouding my head while I'm cooking, driving, breathing. So far, I've written these stories mostly in my head, when I get an idea or a new phrase comes to me, I add it to my mental memory. For years, I would think but what are people going to think? I hadn't even written about them yet and I'm already in anguish over what the people I know, the ones I call friends and family, would think.

For the last few years, I had been religiously journaling, or what Julia Cameron calls doing my Morning Pages which consists of writing three full pages every morning upon waking. I filled three 1 inch hard bounded journal books. Writing three pages daily about the current on goings of my life helped my memory immensely. I wrote about my anticipation toward events. Then I wrote to remember moments and events. I posted the date and time on each entry so I was no longer completely lost as to what the date was. It gave me the discipline for years to get up every morning at 5 am to write. It was a great source to vent out any frustrations. Fast forward two years later though, and my husband began to ask what I was also beginning to ask myself more often. Where am I going with all of this? I knew I wanted a way to move forward but I didn't know how. I realized that I could spend the rest of my life time pouring my thoughts into those journals with no end or recognition in sight. Shortly, well maybe not time-wise, but definitely event-wise because nothing much had happened since then, I got a blog. Then by the click of one mouse, I learned about an Open Mic Night, and from that, about a coffee house.  I went to writing workshops, and Open Mic Nights. I fell in love with the community of  writers, poets, and musicians who dare to spill their souls. And then, I opened myself up to my new creative friend, Lisa from work. In the months that I've known her, I've eaten more new types of food, Persian, Indian, Thai.than I have in my life time. We laugh that we are eating our way through the city. She has a contagious zest for food, music, and life and it's rubbing off on me. All this was great momentum to get me started on my first pages towards something I've always wanted to do but never made any attempts.

I've gotten to the point where I don't care (as much) any more.It's harder not to write and to feel like a coward. I hide behind an alias. I know this first piece is still choppy but it has the potential to be at least decent.

Comments

  1. That you were able to write a story in one sitting is highly commendable. Memoir writing is an art, and sounds like you are on to a great start. I recently just went back to writing morning pages, having quit believing I didn't need them anymore. How wrong I was! They are an indespensible tool. Best wishes with the next chapter.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love your post and reading through your development as a writer. I want more. And I hope you do publish beyond our bloggin world. There are stories everywhere...share, share, share!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree with everything said above. Keep sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is good, this is exciting and I think this is the beginning of something wonderful for you! Spill your soul on that paper...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dear Eve

    I so loved your 'journey into writing story'. I love that now your habit of writing is shaping up into short stories. Great idea. Great development.
    At the moment i'm writing a kind of enhanced memoir, called The Romancer, trying to link what I've written in a long writing life to my own perceptions of people and happenings in my own life. It's a joyous but sometimes tearful enterprise.
    I often recommend the Dorothea Brande/Julia Cameron inspiration of 'daily pages' but I have ambiguous feelings about people who keep doing them forever on a kind of writing treadmill. It is a natural development that they start to shape up into some form as they have with you.
    Happy writing. Keep up with those stories.
    w

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you for all your kind words and support. It's part of the joys of blogging to hear from fellow bloggers and learn that my words have touched their lives or that they enjoyed a post. I love that it's building new bridges too.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eat, Pray, Love

I finally finished Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. It was a breathtakingly beautiful book. It reminded me of my own spiritual journey which I have been in for the last couple of years. Spiritual living is not a destination but a way of living. I recommend the book. I hope you are far along enough on your own spiritual journey to capture the depths of this book. I've heard the book gets mixed reviews. Some people just don't get it. Like Eckhart Tolle’s New Earth, you most likely have to have some higher-level of consciousness to grasp the message of the book, and it takes a while to get through the book because you want to stop and reflect. Elizabeth Gilbert takes you on a soul-searching journey with intimate details you would share only with a bestfriend.

Life Hack: DIY Bleacher Seat Cushion

One of the staples I keep in the truck of my car is my DIY bleacher seat cushion. Its a flat thin recyclable bag with a folded picnic blanket inside. This DIY is so simple, it seems too common sense to blog about. But I will since it phases me why anyone would buy one of those foam seat cushions I see on sale at sporting good stores and events. This one is on sale for $15! My DIY bleach seat cusion is way more functional than a manufactured bleacher seat cushion which has only one purpose. Having a blanket conviently stored inside makes it multifunctional.  You have a blanket on hand for those chilly early morning meets. And any time we are at outdoor events with my mom or inlaws, I'm prepared for the evening cold for them as well.  A shade for the afternoon sun. Fold it length wise for a multiple seat cushion, to reserve extra seat space, or to spread out your legs. (As a track mom of three sons, I can been on the bleachers for hours. I'm writing this bl

Detained In The Desert

I went to see Josefina Lopez’s  world premier play, “ Detained In The Desert ”. Josefina, known for her popular Real Women Have Curves, was vacationing in Arizona when SB 1070 was passed. She was unable to go to protest rallies held that night because of prior family commitments but Josefina had it in her heart to do something.  In the five years between 2003 and 2007, there was a 40 percent increase in crimes against Latinos. It’s no wonder considering the proliferation of “hate talk” that spews off the radio, TV, and internet and aims at infuriating the masses. In a climate saturated with negative propaganda, fear mongering, and increasing violence, what one would consider a random act of violence is in reality not so random after all. When we create a society that is so pitted against one another, our chance encounters become unavoidable collisions between unsuspecting individuals caught within the biome of the conflicted society in which we live. It’s like walking into a room with