I’ve done more moaning and groaning than writing since last November. Just after Thanksgiving of 2014, my husband and I moved out of our Richmond, Indiana house (where we’d lived for twenty-three years) to a new much smaller home in Indianapolis.
The boxes and the upheaval and the not-knowing-where-anything-is pushed my writing time off the radar screen and, other than a few scattered stints, that’s where my writing has remained: not happening!
Now that the boxes are unpacked and I’m really enjoying our new digs, you’d think my writing would be back on track. Not the case! I can’t seem to find my rhythm, that sequence of events that unfolded almost ritualistically and ended with me in front of my computer surrounded by piles of books. “I’m missing the Bagel Shop,” I tell myself. But I’ve found a perfect table at my new local library where they even let me drink coffee! And I’ve created a wonderful work space at home. “I’m distracted by the details I need to get squared away in this still-new place of ours.” But those details are not overwhelming and they will never completely go away.
I’ve come to the conclusion that what I’m lacking is the discipline to just get to it, to pencil in a week’s worth of writing blocks on my calendar and just show up for work. It’s an absolutely accurate diagnosis and I know it. Still, it seemed such a dry and dull solution and I just didn’t think I had the energy…
Until a fellow writer forwarded me a video of a man and a typewriter, creating a far different form of art than I do…but surmounting unbelievable odds and just getting to it.
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Author
Biography | View
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Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
Just Fine They Way They Are (Calkins Creek, March 1, 2011)
- The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton (Clarion Books, 2010)
- Thank You Very Much, Captain Ericsson! (Holiday House, 2005; Berndtsdotter Books, 2012)
- When Esther Morris Headed West (Holiday House, 2001)
- The Legend of Strap Buckner (Holiday House, 2001)
- Wicked Jack (Holiday House, 1995)
Speaker / Presenter
Connie is an experienced speaker and presenter who enjoys sharing her passion for writing and her experience as a writer with readers and writers of all ages. She has presented to students, community, civic and professional organizations, writing groups, library audiences, and seniors – wherever book lovers gather!