Tuesday, October 22, 2013

October 22, 2013

I have a list of items I want to post about, and it gets overwhelming when I look at it.  I have so many things I want to say here, but..., well, if you visit from time to time you'll have noticed that I'm not a regular blogger. 
The most important item to write about this month is my 5 days at the Franciscan friary in Port Jefferson, New York.  My husband has an appointed position on Chapter, as vocations coordinator (I think that's the correct title).  And I was elected this year as a Chapter member.  So the five days were filled with meetings with other Chapter members and visitors, and with prayers with the friars.
I've taken on a couple of jobs: I'm on an ad hoc committee on Ministry to Young Adults, with looking at the Franciscan Earth Corp group.  I'm thinking about how to create retreats and pilgrimages that would appeal to people between the ages of 18--35.  My other job is to minister to the isolated tertiaries in the Province of the Americas, while I pay special attention to Canadian tertiaries (many of whom are among the isolated). 

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Thoughts on writing

It occurs to me that even when I'm not writing, I am actually writing.  Fingers may not be on the keyboard.  Pen or pencil may not be touching paper.  Yet I'm writing. It's my thought processes that are at work:  Include this.  Delete that.  Try this or that angle.  Then when I do start to "write" it will flow through my subconscious and find its way onto paper, perhaps via the computer or perhaps not.  I like to write on paper and then copy onto the computer, even if what appears on the screen might not even resemble what is on the paper.  The paper notes help combat any writer's block--if such a thing really exists.  So, my notebook is growing even though my word files don't show it. 
That's writing my novels (I have 2  or 3 in the works: Angels in the Flames is written but resting between trips to publishers; and the 2 I refer to as MXME and PPSQ).  Other writing, like articles for example, don't get notes.  They get trial and error drafts.  Today I'm writing a short piece for the Franciscan Times, assigned by Chapter a year ago.  I want to get it in the mail before I leave for the next Chapter meeting--and that's next Tuesday!  I have a draft that I think will do, with just a bit of polishing.  So, that will happen when I type it onto the computer tomorrow.  Some measure of writing success, I guess.