One of the challenges I have faced as a writer has been the simple concept of "getting out." In order to write about life, living, and the human condition...one must first be in a position to experience life, living, and the human condition.
Well, Monday I got it into my head to join the Red Cross, Tuesday I attended my first DAT (Disaster Action Team) training seminar, and today found me sitting at a booth at a Senior Expo passing out pamphlets and mimicking the "spiels" of the seasoned volunteers as though I had actual knowledge about the topics themselves!!!! Just meeting people, "running off at the mouth" (as a good Southern girl must do), and listening to their concerns, questions, and comments really stirred my creative juices.
Writing can be such a sedentary occupation (or "calling"..."drive"..."insane obsession") that one often forgets that unless the time is made to step away from the computer, typewriter, notebook, or laptop in order to actually interact with this process of living, there is that possibility of being not a "writer," but one of those fabled fools who "write" for no other reason than they cannot "do."
Stay connected, people!
Tell me, in what ways do you "get out"...and how does this benefit your writing?
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