Bernadette Benda

In the last week or so, I’ve taken to sitting on the porch in the morning, writing in my notebook. I’m really digging sitting out when the light is still grey, some rain pattering down. The weather has been LOVELY this fall in good old Ohio (“find it here” WHAT ARE WE FINDING HERE??? Cheese barns? Buckeyes? Antique malls??), and the leaves have been pretty too (recently in the past few years there has been a lot of brown, brown, brown).

Since I finished my 244th rewrite (Ok, my second rewrite) of OWWTSF, and since NaNo is on its way, I’ve taken a bit of a break from “serious” writing. And meanwhile have done some soft prep for NaNo and journaling. Lot’s of journaling.

Ok I’m just blabbing on at this point. Let me GET to the point. I wanted to share this, which I wrote one frosty morning:

It’s a frosty October morning, and I think of Frodo and the Hobbits traveling through the wilderness with Strider. They’ll be reaching the last homely house soon. Fall always reminds me of Middle-Earth. Fall reminds me of adventures. Fall may be the putting of nature to sleep, but I will always think of it as the start of something new, even more than New Year’s. Summer playtime is over, the work has begun again. Now things are staring, and the holiday and celebrating are coming soon. The year is finally dying, and a new one is on its way.

I’m freezing, and I probably should have put on a jacket and shoes, sitting on the cold cement steps of the porch. But there can be a certain pleasure in being cold, silent, and still, when the day is rising brightly, and the leaves are yellow and brown and red, and a hot cup of tea is in your hand. I love modern housing, I really do, but sometimes it can feel like we live in wooden, brick, and plaster boxes.

On a side note, my dad is painting the garage floor and listening to Drift Away and other old hits because what else do you do when you’re painting?

Now a hear a long wail of “nooooooo”. A gust of wind has just blown leaves into the garage. On the wet paint.

Yours Truly

(I would like to point out that we did get the leaves off the paint and the floor turned out fine)

A while ago I wrote a blog about creative journaling (read here) (short and sweet, but whatever). And I want to reiterate what I said there.

As writer’s we tend to get focused on one writing project, because doing two at once is just….too hard. But as creative people it can be frustrating and hard to NOT work on anything else for an extended period of time. Whether because we get drained of the project, we get plot bunnies, or our creative juices just have other things they want to do.

And that’s why I love journaling.

It doesn’t require the focus of starting a whole other project (which for myself I don’t advise doing if I’m already working on one) (I have at times drafted a story and edited another story in tandem, and sometimes that worked. But this year I’ve been far too busy to do that).

Those random sentence ideas you have? Write them down. That short you come up with on a walk? Write half of it down and eventually stop because you’re too tired and you go to bed.

And plus it just boils down to the two creative principals of being a writer: you need to write, you need to read.

And just…..write everything. Write novels, write short stories, write have finished narratives at 10pm before bed. Practice, practice, practice. And trying new things and new styles is how you’re going to find your “style” or your “‘voice”. Which are both very vague and abstract ideas but something every writer has.

Also in news I already shard on a blog at some point…. (last Saturday??) I created a zine for an art show (because writing is an ART people) and I may….create more….and sell them… I’ve never done anything like this before and I’m really excited and thank you Canva for making everything so easy though using it on an iphone is the absolute worse thing ever.

Ok. Peace out.