sinkingliner

Ever since cave men drew pictures on the their cave walls people have felt the urge to create.

Ever since the Third Grade I have felt the urge to create.

The first story I wrote was an assignment our teacher gave us.  We each drew a slip of paper with a name of something grown in a garden. I got Garlic. I don’t recall the story, but I do recall it was funny. People liked it and the teacher thought it was good. For better or for worse I’ve been trying to write stories and be funny ever since.

For a few years of my life I was fortunate enough to make a living writing. Since then I have done some writing to entertain myself. Once the internet came around I was able to self publish a novel on Amazon (after getting turned down by countless literary agents) John Canale’s Novel and start a blog.

But I fell into what I refer to as the attention trap. When I wrote a blog post I was more concerned with how many people were reading my stuff than with what I was writing. Because of that I tripped over myself to write what I thought people would like instead of writing what I wanted.

So, I decided to take a break

Since my last blog post in September I have stepped away from writing and tried to scratch my creative itch in the other ways. Even though I can’t draw to save my life I decided to do some painting. A few turned out OK but I enjoyed doing them for the pure joy of doing them. I also did some photography which I really enjoyed – and, I even got a picture accepted into the Annual Employee Art show.

But, writing is always my first love.

There is a friend of mine who has a big garden, loves to cook and make his own wine. Without being aware of it he’s being very creative. It isn’t for the attention or the comments or the compliments but because he just loves to do it. Hopefully, with writing, I can get back to doing what I love to do for the love of it.

Writing for me at this point should be just a recreational hobby. People play golf or softball because they like too,  not because they are going turn professional. People go to the gym (me, occasionally) to keep their body fit and healthy. Anyone with a creative urge will tell you the same thing. You need to create to keep your body AND mind fit and healthy.

Speaking of creativity, one of my other passions is Modern Art. I’m going to combine writing with Modern Art in a separate blog – “My View of Art” (https://artwithjc.wordpress.com). I’m trying to figure out what Modern Art is all about and hopefully turn on some people to Modern Art.

Now that I have had time away from my blog, it’s time to get back to my roots. There will still be plenty of self deprecating pieces, some boring pieces and a few what-is-he-talking-about blogs. But, now, the posts will be written to make me happy and not aimed to make everyone who reads them happy.

But — feel free to tell your friends and family about my blog – cause I’ll always want some attention!