Writing is a living thing!

I am doing a writing course with an emphasis on blogging. Monday to Friday we are given a task each day for 4 weeks. Today is Day 11. This is the first task I am struggling with. I am trying to put my finger on it so bear with me as I talk myself through this.

As much as we love to write, it’s important to take breaks — to live your life and have new experiences, and to reflect and recharge so you can come back to your desk, ready to hit the keyboard again. What do you do when you’re not writing? How do you reset and return to this dashboard, refreshed? What do you need in your day-to-day life to maintain balance …….:

— The Task from the team at Blogging University 101

Write every day, but don’t put your life on hold . . .

— Vincent Mars, “Writing as a Way of Life“

Why am I finding this so hard to wrap my head around? With every other task to date, I have had a seed of an idea from the beginning, with a bit of nurturing something grew pretty quickly and fruit was borne.

I think possibly for me this task is the reverse of how I operate.

As I said in an earlier task, I am not sure I consider myself a writer. I think I blog.

I don’t have to force myself to take a break from blogging to get out there and live. Rather I live and like to blog about that.

I travel, take photos, socialise, go to cooking classes. I live in an amazing place and experience an amazing culture very different to my own on a daily basis. I have wonderful friends and family. I like to blog and share these experiences, express myself, to keep memories and be grateful.

My experiences are like scaffolding and it from there I build a piece of writing. Without living there is no blogging for me.

This task reminded me of the saying

Work to live, don’t live to work

I blog about living but I am not dependent on blogging to live.

I don’t take a break from blogging to go and live. I tend to take a break from a busy life to blog. Blogging for me is a quiet, contemplative time, a time to take stock, analyse, rethink, rehash and express my opinions, a time to share memories of people, places and good times.

I don’t need to stop blogging and go and find balance, I need to blog as part of my balance.

Spain 2011

Yoroshiku Onegai shimasu

Leanne