Writing for the sake of Writing

I just got back from a short trip to New York, and I'm feeling kinda lousy, had the sniffles and a cough since we landed back in Long Beach, nothing major but enough to keep me feeling a little bit sorry for myself, (and of course looking for some well deserved sympathy from Patty,) It's not all bad though, I got to stay in bed yesterday till two-thirty in the arvo, now that's what I call decadence.

So, "big deal," I hear you saying, "you got a cough and a snotty nose, get over it,"
But, that's not the big deal, the big deal is I haven't stopped thinking about writing since before we left for NYC, which is a huge deal.

I just finished writing a post for the swagger blog,

http://swaggerwriters.blogspot.com/ and I also wrote a post as a guest blogger for Active Happiness, http://activehappiness.com/ so including this post, that's three different posts on three different topics and I'm over the moon about it. I was at first a little hesitant about writing a blog because it committed me to actually writing and seriously that's mostly felt like a chore, but the more I do this the more I find my mind is craving that creative morsel.



I had a conversation with someone who I consider to be a good friend while I was in New York, and over a beer he told me he'd read my blog if it wasn't about "where your cat sleeps on your bed," (oops!) or what I had for breakfast today or what movie I just saw, he said he would read it if it was about the writing process because that's what he finds interesting. I've discovered that that's what I find interesting as well, (At least for this blog,) I'm beginning to realize that writing is a process that demands I pull out the jogging shoes and take for a run around the block (Ok,Ok a snappy walk in my case,) and that it's not something that can be taken for granted, that a writer writes, and when the writer isn't writing the writer needs to at least dedicate some portion of the grey matter to thinking about writing, or else the writer is not a writer. I'm realizing that it's absolute arrogance to think that I, as a writer can just sit down anytime I want with any amount of absence from writing and just pound on the keys and *poof* magically a worthy piece of writing will appear, If I just let my conscious thoughts go the authors of years gone by will fill the page with words worthy of being read. I'm beginning to understand the importance as a writer to, no matter what, get something down on paper every day. A very good friend of mine constantly tells me, and has told me for the past six? years to get Ass in Chair Words on Paper and only now am I seeing the value in that statement.

What I'm writing here isn't Pulitzer prize material and it never will be, what I am managing to write here though are the thoughts of a W.I.P. --- Writer in Progress, and so regardless of how sick I feel (can I get some sympathy Puuulease?) or how few words I manage to pound out at least I know I'm beginning to not just write in spite of myself.