Think of this. It’s the dead of winter, snow is piled along the sides of the street and, most importantly, the trees are comatose waiting for spring, and I could actually see and smell the leaves swirling in the wind, frolicking around the tines of your rake. Even better is that you somehow made possible the molding of that imagery with you writing, pen scratching across the “blue-lined paper”. I read the words “trillion zillion” and actually felt a sort of calm frustration that could only exist in such a time of immense, though completely manageable, helplessness.

After all this I thought, why not be inspired all the time, every time? Maybe the answer is not “write less” or “be inspired less while writing more”. Maybe the answer is write more and always be inspired.

Inspiration comes from more than the clichés. I fear the day I know longer find inspiration in the way my tea bag wraps itself like a vine around my teaspoon as I create a whirlpool of my chemically enhanced sugar. Or the day I no longer think of the trees sighing eloquent condemnations of corrupt leaders and levied taxes as I walk the paths along Walden Pond. Or the day I no longer see the beauty of finding a friend in the most unlikely of places at the most unlikely of times, drawn to that person in the most inexplicable of ways.

I love the quote, the answer to the question “why do you write?” in that post—“because it would be worse if I didn’t.” It’s definitely fitting there. But it also has something to say here too.

Maybe doing nothing is worse because what’s better is not simply writing, but writing so that you capture those inspiring moments of your everyday life, however seemingly insignificant to anyone else. Maybe it’s not “not writing” that makes it worse. Maybe what makes it worse is not meticulously cataloging those everyday-inspiring moments before they escape your consciousness. Maybe it’s not simply worse, but unbearable.

I’d like to think you’re wrong about there not being any live and kicking actual persons reading your webpage, but I think you’re closer to right than I would wish.

See, I built your website as part of a team that builds web pages for writers and other creative individuals, I’m really, really uncertain of their actual value. They don’t attract readers, and I worry that blogs for writers dilute the writers’ talents (if you’re writing here, you’re giving it away for free instead of writing what you ought to be writing); and I just wonder about the rationale for the whole websites for writers thing. I don’t blow smoke, so I don’t just make up benefits for these things or swear you’ll be the next Hemingway / Fitzgerald / King / Rowling (you name it) if only you build a website.

I mean, I hope there IS a reason for them since a large part of my income depends on building these sites, but if they don’t exist to sell books via e-commerce (and nobody ever buys books from writers’ websites; if they want to buy, they go to Amazon or to the little shop around the corner, we could hope), and if it’s not to read their blogs (who would, afterall? I only came to see if it still works), then what are these sites really for?

I suppose they save a lot of chatter if you can just say, “See my website” for routine questions and answers, but is that enough reason for building these things? Are they just extended book jackets (or should I drop the “just” and trumpet that they’re extended book jackets and as such a valuable part of your promotion?). Is it just something that’s *expected* these days, that a legitimate project (like a book) will have its own existence on the web?

What’s it all about, Francisco? How could this be more useful to you?

dc

A think a journal can compare to a good friend. Sometimes it helps to talk things out. I can’t think of how many times I’ve called a friend to talk about something, and come to new understandings after hearing the words come out of my mouth. Once things were verbalized, they became more clear.

For me, journaling is that but ten fold. I am far more eloquent, I think, in writing than I am in speaking. And in my journal I can talk about things more freely than I can with any one person. I am constantly coming to new insights and new understandings just through the process of dumping information onto the page. In fact, even today, sitting in a coffee shop, I had a major “oh wow” moment.

I also tend to forget things the moment I journal them. I forget because I am not composing, really. I am just dumping. That way, i can go back to entries from only a few months ago and almost view them objectively, and this brings the greatest insights of all.