Star Stuff Writer

In the movie Groundhog Day, when Phil Connors (played by Bill Murray) and Rita (played by Andie MacDowell) are spinning cards into an upturned hat, Phil urges Rita to “Be the hat!”

I want to “Be the writer.”

It’s now January of 2008, and it’s time to take a look: at what I’m doing, at where I’m going, at what I need to do, at what I need to change.

Half the books and articles about writing declare that if you want to write, you’ve got to write.

But what happens is: most people don’t write. They do other things. They spend their time worrying about whether they can write, or whether they can write well enough. Or they get washed away by the complexity and overhead of life. And by the surprises that life tosses out, with what feels like malicious glee, to litter your path and obstruct your progress.

And the writing doesn’t get done. The writer never writes.

This is not a profound observation. But it exudes that gall bitter pathos of experience.

Good Advice

When I was exploring the idea of starting one or more blogs, Lorelle, of Lorelle on WordPress, cautioned me about starting more than one blog. Her counsel was clear and self-evident. It made perfect sense.

But there was one topic I needed to write about. That was my first blog.

As well, writing is such a core imperative for me, that I wanted to include this blog (Star Stuff Writer) in the melange.

Then, beyond that, I wanted the flexibility to write about my other interests, without cluttering my more focused blogs.

I believe Miss Marple (played by Joan Hickson) said that good advice is almost certain to be ignored, but that’s no reason not to give it. Ah well.

Objective

I want to break through my barriers of doubt and distraction. And I want to make the best I can of advice that is offered.

My objective, with this blog, is to take my writing skills and develop them further.

This includes my production skills: my ability to take an idea, do the thinking and organizing, the research, the re-thinking and re-organizing, and develop an article – in a reasonably compact time frame.

This also includes the quality of my writing – that includes grammar and style – which means keeping in touch with my usage and style guides – and keeping in touch with my wonderful grammar/sentence structure book, Grammar by Diagram, by Cindy L. Vitto.

This also includes the quality of my content. This may well be my biggest challenge – and my greatest opportunity for growth and improvement.

Resolved

So – it is my objective, for the foreseeable future, to write and post an article for this blog one or two times a week.

And may the stars have mercy on my success – and on my sanity.