Bob's Write from the Start: About Over-thinking 1

Bob's Write from the Start

Bob’s Write from the Start, a blog sharing the roller coaster ride of this renewing writer’s feelings and actual experiences, began March 2017. That January, I began with a two-sentence contribution to a local Writing Group. I am now a Guest Columnist for a local paper and have contributed to small and online magazines. My comments for new and renewing writers? Start by starting. Join a writing group. You are unique but not alone. Once you start work, you will not be in Kansas anymore.

Saturday, June 17, 2017

About Over-thinking 1

Along this journey of my renewing my writing, I have found a few side roads that look interesting, travelled down some of them and was variably happy for the trip or grumpy about what I saw as wasting time. There are also billboards advertising the what they say is the right answer. Notwithstanding my staying away from those that sound like snake oil miracle cures, I have nevertheless discovered few that stand up to any kind of cross-examination. Some of the pronouncements were even worse. Not only do they usually lack any semblance of rigour, they strike me as some combination of mysterious, imprecise and hairbrained.

The best of the lot by far so far has been Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. She has the impeccable good grace to say the reader may find some counsel in one place that seems to contradictory advice in another place.

I am trying to absorb that as an observation that is of any real use to me.

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About Me

Name: Bob's Write From The Start

Location: Sarnia, Ontario, Canada

Born, raised and living in Sarnia, Ontario, Bob Boulton began writing poetry, short stories and humorous articles for his high school newspaper in the period just after dinosaurs roamed the earth. His article on the mysteries of the Chess Club was particularly well-received. Bob’s excruciatingly naive teenage sonnet was published with positive mention in the high school yearbook. In University he wrote pretty much indecipherable essays on Existentialism and Phenomenology. Then, early in his working career, Bob also wrote short feature articles in the now-defunct (not his fault) Weston York Times. For this, he was paid $5.00 per article, which didn’t quite cover his transportation and parking costs. Then after a short break of thirty-five or forty years as an executive and leadership coach, Bob reactivated his passion for writing. The alternatives he considered were learning to yodel or trying to play the bagpipes. Bob’s loving and supportive family voted enthusiastically, and quickly, for writing.