Photographs

Since finishing The Artist's Way, I promised myself I'd make being creative more of a priority in my life. To that end, I've promised myself I'd enter some of my photos in a local contest; you know GET OUT THERE WITH IT ALREADY, so to speak. I'll be posting some of the photos I'm working on here and there. The photo in the "Artist's Way" post is one of those as is this one.

I'm so lucky to have a Mom that I can talk over things like writing and photography with, someone who understands the creative impulse, someone who constantly encourages me, someone who has known I was creative since before I knew I was creative.

Last night, while congratulating ourselves on her publications over the phone (yes, for reasons unknown, I congratulate myself when she is published--for being on the team I suppose), I began musing about how long it took me to decide to have a blog. Or rather, back in the day I first had the impulse to write on the web, they were more often called "online journals".

I've thought about writing online--are you ready for this? For eight years. EIGHT. YEARS.

Talk about your creatively constipated! It's a wonder I didn't ultimately require a creative colostomy. Maybe even a creative reincarnation. Seriously.

And, to be honest, I do wonder sometimes if blogging is a diversion, too. It feeds the creative impulse while not requiring me to really produce anything serious. I'm notoriously bad about writing first drafts, reading them over, becoming HORRIFIED at how bad they are, and then never being able to bring myself to revisit the work again.

Then I read "Bird by Bird". And found out ANNE LAMOTT has shitty first drafts. Like, every time. First drafts so bad she lives in fear someone will find and read them some day.

I'm running out of excuses.