To Write or Not To Write

Today is day one of my journey to break into copy writing. Of course, instead of actually doing the aforementioned thing (i.e., creating a Fiverr profile, researching how to write a blog post, getting out there and getting my first gig), I'm here writing a non-monetized blog post that no one will ever read. But it's ok. I hope to document my process and the results, and who knows, maybe one day, I, too, will publish an e-book on the subject.

So, where will I start?

I downloaded this e-book from amber-baker.com. I think it's helpful, but do wish for a bit a more. (I'm a complete child when it comes to these things and want someone to hold my hand throughout the whole process.) My first impression is that I'm thankful for Amber and her website and I'm 100% satisfied with my e-book purchase. She's just one person that God will use on this journey of getting me into writing ... and it was her Instagram account that gave me the kick in my pants that brought me here today. 

Next: I'm now downloading this e-book. Let's see if it gives me the hand-holding that I desire. I'm not a throw-myself-into-the-deep-end kind of girl. My tendency is that I'll endlessly research and never get started. Or I'll procrastinate, which is what I'm doing here with this blog post.

Here's to writing! (Hopefully.) I'll let you know how it goes...

Avoid Using the Word 'Very'

So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women - and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays.

~Dead Poets Society, N.H. Kleinbaum

The Unsent Letter Project

"Sir, When we thinke of a friend, we do not count that thought a lost thought, though that friend never knew of it.  If we write to a friend, we must not call it a lost Letter, though it never finde him to whom it was addressed: for we owe ourselves that office, to be mindefull of our friends."

~Poet and Preacher John Donne in a letter to a friend (written sometime between 1603 and 1616)

My favorite blogger is girl by the name of Meg Fee.  She writes beautifully and with disarming truth.  It's that truth that I admire so and it's the lack of it in my own blog posts that I dislike.  It's not that I'm incapable of writing the truth-- read my diary sometime-- but I'm loathe to write it here.  In the early days, before friends and my mother knew about this blog, I found writing truthfully to be much easier (and safer).  Nowadays, I stick to posting pretty pictures, mindless fluff, and the odd quote or bit of poetry that hints at what lies beneath.


In my collection are a bunch of letters that I have started to friends but never finished (or finished and never sent).  They're fun for me to look at because they capture for me how I was feeling at that time.  And they're honest.  Sometimes shockingly so.  It scares me a bit to post them here, but in an attempt to be more honest, that's what I intend to do.  This feels like a character-growing activity for me because it lets people in to see some of my sensitive spots (and the ugly blights upon my soul as well), but it feels safe-ish, too, because they paint pictures of a former elise, not the current elise.


With that, I humbly submit the Unsent Letter Project.  My first entry is rather innocuous; the heady ones will come later.  I always was the type to dip my toe in before jumping in completely.  This letter is to a girl named Golnar who I had forgotten ever existed until I found this letter.  It would have been written circa 1993 (I was a seventh grader), and was to a friend I had left behind after my family moved to Delaware.

The letter (transcribed below):

Dear Golnar,
    So how is science?  Real fun I bet, right?  Well here it is so boring.  Everyone seem to be so stupid (I don't mean to be mean.  I'm serious though)  It's just that well they don't really think.  I'm almost positive I'll either get all A's or all A's and 1 B.  You'd whiz by here.  So would Janet.  So how is it being a lab partner with Janet?  You get to do a lot more things when you do a lab without me (miss fair everyone gets the exact amount of turns) there.  Also I'm no longer blameable (is that a word) for breaking stuff.  Our science class here is... different... The other day we got to disect a earthworm.  How fun!  I just love earthworms don't you?  Well actully I got to disect a gummiworm (yumm) instead.  Some other people chose to too.  Well I gotta go take a shower now (We have to be at the bus stop at 6:55 [that's right 6:55 in the morning]) Please, please, please, please, PLEASE write back.
                                                                       your friend,
                                                                                         Elise

Rilke on Writing

"Search for the reason that bids you to write; find out whether it is spreading out its roots in the deepest places of your heart, acknowledge to yourself whether you would have to die if it were denied you to write.  This above all-- ask yourself in the stillest hour of the night: must I write?  Delve into yourself for a deep answer.  And if this should be affirmative, if you may meet this ernest question with a strong and simple, "I must," then build your life according to this necessity; your life even into its most indifferent and slightest hour must be a sign of this urge and a testimony to it." 


~Rainer Maria Rilke in a letter to Franz Xaver Kappus, February 17, 1903

Lagging behind

I feel like my life is a bit of a mess lately-- my room is a disaster, that somehow seems to be creeping into the hall and the bathroom as well.  In addition, I've now been at my parent's house for two+ months and I've yet to finish unpacking my boxes.  I also haven't figured out what I'm doing with my life.

On the other hand, I have been going regularly to a physical therapist to get my knee back on track from pain that I have in my Iliotibial band.  I feel stronger already, now realize that I LOVE massages (I fell in a deep crush on my therapist that first day he massaged my knee and leg.  Since then, I've learned to distinguish my feelings and now think that my crush is really only directed to those magnificent hands of his), and can feel the pain decreasing.  I've also been actively helping around the house, i.e., giving my brother rides to the University and work so that his own pained knee can heal, cooking dinner each night, and mowing the lawn,

I think when I began this blog, I was a little overzealous, or perhaps, overly ambitious.  I did note early on that I don't really finish what I start, so it is no wonder that I'm not so great about updating this blog very often.  I am also a bit of a perfectionist, so I don't want to write unless I feel I have something interesting or brilliant to say.  In the future, I'll try to just post, rather than waiting for inspiration to strike.