I Want to Start Writing Again...

But I think I've lost my voice.

But I feel like I have nothing to say.

I want to write about parenting teenagers, yet I'm not willing to be that vulnerable or more importantly, make my kids that vulnerable at this point.

I want to write about my experiences in California, but it no longer feels comfortable to sarcastically complain about it, yet I don't have a deep love either.  So everything I attempt comes out flat.

I'm back in the classroom on a daily basis after years of virtual school teaching.  It's amazing.  And it's not time yet for that story.

Occasionally I have these flashes of inspiration, but they happen at the most inopportune times.  When I'm in the shower.  Driving on the interstate (I don't think I'll ever call it a freeway).  In the middle of a conversation with someone.

And by the time I actually sit down at the computer (If I was fortunate enough to remember what it was I was going to write about in the first place) my thoughts are a mad jumble that I cannot organize to save my life.

Not writing makes me sort of sad.  And I've replaced it with binge-watching Bones and re-binge-watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix.  And that's not sort of sad.  That's really sad.

So I joined this writing group for February.  500 words per day.  It's Feb. 8 and I've only written a little over 1,000 so far.

Anyone who knows me knows that my superpower is making a short story long, so the fact that I'm this far in the hole means something's off.

I bought a book three years ago by Sark called Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper:  Gifting the World with Your Words and Stories and Creating the Time and Energy to Actually Do It.

I don't know about gifting the world.  I do know that writing's been a form of cheap therapy for me over the years.  But the time and energy thing?  I'd like some of that.

My plan...until I'm inspired otherwise...is to start on page one of this book and diligently work through the writing prompts with a goal of 500 words for each.  I feel like I'm seventeen again, enrolled in EN101--Beginning Composition.

I'm going to post them here.  Mostly so I don't lose them.

And maybe I'll find my voice.