I had an idea

Writing by Lois

I guess many of us these days have friends, sometimes very good friends, who we have never met and are never likely to meet. I’m thinking of course, about friends we meet through social media and also, in my case, this blog. I wrote a few months ago about someone I called Michael, a real person who had frequently commented on what I wrote. We “knew” each other for maybe  six or seven years and then suddenly he stopped. I know people’s lives and interests change, but I began to wonder if maybe he was ill, or worse, maybe he had died. Unfortunately, I discovered that this was true, and I was sad, very sad, even though I’d never met him or spoken to him.

I have other “friends” I have met here, people I don’t know in the real world; I’m pleased when they comment on my witterings, and interested in what they say. There’s a person who I met through a joint blog I shared with two friends, and she joined us and wrote there too. That blog has now  finished, although obviously it still exists in WordPressland. The two original fellow bloggers are real life friends, so I’m in email touch with them and we meet up occasionally, but the other lady lives far away. Fortunately she and I continue to be in touch on other social media.

I asked her recently if she still wrote her quirky stories and clever poems. No, she replied sadly, she seemed to have lost whatever it was; she’d write a couple of lines then would dry up and lose her thread. She had ideas, but they evaporated when she tried to write. I so sympathise, it’s not as bad for me, but I do struggle compared to how I used  to write. Was it lockdown for me, was it shingles, have I just run out of write? Writing here is my salvation, and it gees me up to do my other writing, slow though it is. But my poor friend, living on her own, unable to go out as much as she used to, somewhat isolated, but still cheerful, still sharing images on Instagram…

I had an idea. There’s a monthly writing competition and the only rule is the story has to be fifty words on the set title/topic. I wondered if that might help her get back into the swing and I messaged her with the details. I was delighted when she replied several hours later that she had looked up the comp, had a good old think, and had struggled, but had written a fifty-word story and submitted it! Fingers crossed for her!

10 Comments

    1. Lois
      Reply

      Yes it is, just keeps you warmed up! I once did 100 blogs of 100 words in 100 consecutive days! It was sometimes hard, but I did it and when I’d finished I kept going for a few more days as it was such a habit!

      Liked by 1 person

      2. Lois

        Thank you very much. Yes, sometimes I did really have to force it, but afterwards I couldn’t remember which ones were forced! 😀 I did continue for a little while, although I didn’t include them in my book, but then I moved on to other writing.

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