Writing is a Frustrating Art

I sometimes feel frustrated beyond belief.
 I want to write. I want to share.
 I don't want to write. I don't want to share.
I want a subject to appear with ideas around it, so that all I have to do is rearrange the words and the blog post will be complete and beautiful. To every one. Including me.
Do you feel that way? Are the rats in the attic just scurrying around and scuffling with each other?

                                               
Does your mind feel like this? Mine does.

Then I sit down and stare at a blank page and wonder where all the rats went. Surely they left behind something for me to chew on. A biscuit. A crumb.

A crumb.

 There is always something left behind that can fuel your imagination. You just have to let it. You cannot force the words. You need to let them scurry from place to place and finally, one will scurry into the corner and you can capture it. Then all you have to do is capture another one. Some days, you have to let them all go and start over.

My friends, here is to crumbs. Come back and see which ones I have found and what kind of mixture I made with it.
                              

Experience for the Writer

Catchy title, right?

What are experiences for the writer? All of them. Now, you have to decide how to write about them. Experience is not the only thing you need. You need to feel the experiences and know how they change you so you can take that knowledge to the page and make it interesting to the reader.

It is more than, "I went to the store". What did you do there? Who did you see? What was said? Who said it? When you ask these questions, you have to answer them. You are not the only one that can learn from you did, said and who you did it with.

A good story has more than a beginning, middle and an end. You need specifics. You need love and laughter.

For all of this you need experience. Experience life and all its light and shadows, and then show us about it.

Observe

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The next word in our tools is 'observe'. There is a lot that can be said about observing. Some of us do it well and casually, some of us need road signs.
I need road signs.
My husband gave me a stained glass window for my birthday one year. It fit in a transom window over the door of our house. Our bedroom door was right beside it. You went by one to get to the other. He put the window in while I was gone one evening. I returned and went into the bedroom. Came out and watched tv and then later, went to bed.
My birthday was the next day.
I came out of our room and saw this long white paper banner that said "Happy Birthday" hanging from the top of the door. I thought it was pretty. He came home for lunch.
"Did you see your present?"
"Yes. I love the banner."
He then jerked the banner down to reveal my REAL present. You can hide my gifts in plain sight.
As writers, we should be way more observant than that.
Notice the bug on the leaf. See how he moves from one spot to the next. It may come in handy for a story about someone lost in the woods.
After your observation describe it in words and maybe even, a sketch. The better you understand it the better you can write about it.
Learn to observe.