Q

I enjoy playing Scrabble and Bananagrams and other word games. Thus, I know the elusive nature of the letter 'q' in the English language. However, at work I find myself writing q's often, and was surprised today to see how many q's were on my white board after just one class. Teaching math, I write "equation" a lot. And how often do you think of "equation" when playing Scrabble? (well, maybe you do...) I also seem to write "question" a lot, mostly with instructions. And when typing, there is "Chongqing", where I live. So many q's!

Tomorrow I am going to tally the number of times I use 'q' in my day, written that is. Maybe the backwards p is not so elusive after all.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Added 9/30/11: Yesterday I wrote 20 q's. Really. Today I noticed it also. I think it's time to memorize all the words with q in them and kick butt at Scrabble. Not that I don't already.

How to proceed?

I've disappeared and I'm not certain it's a bad thing. Since returning to Chongqing 6 weeks ago, I've debated whether or not to keep this here blog. Not only am I super busy at work, but the time I do have off I'd like to spend away from the computer.

Months and months ago I read another blogger's farewell. Having begun to find other moms in a time of need, she now felt less needy and ready to move on with life, sans blog.

I've been wondering if I'm there also.

I love to write, but...what is the right medium? Where is the right place? How often should I do it?

As I figure this out I will attempt to be better at putting something here. Maybe this will turn into one of those diary blogs that starts out bad and turns into a really rad book.

Yeah. That's what will happen.

Stream of consciousness

I know, I know - I missed a day. Well, we went to a huge expat party, ate, drank, were merry, and came home late with the kids. I decided, everyone needs a day off. I considered doing two posts today to make up for it but this is my blog and I reserve the right to change the rules as I please.

So resolutions are good. And this resolution is going very well (aside from the paragraph above). I enjoy it. I spout my mouth about all things uninteresting and random and you poor people read it. It's not the next great American novel, but it's something. At least I'm writing. But the writing doesn't feel, um, to have a point. I sit here feeling uninspired and frankly, a bit tired. Yet I've challenged myself to write every day. To the world. Something worth reading. From my brain.

I read once that if you want to be a writer you must write every day. Hone your skills. Get something out and feel it, read it, leave it, make it better. All writers, big and small, write EVERY DAY. But what is this writing they do? Is it junk like I put here? Is it musing over a new chapter in a novel for an hour? What exactly am I supposed to be writing?

I guess I should start with my goal. Writing, I said, would be an outlet for me to relieve stress so that I may be sane for those with whom I share space. Ultimately, however, I would like to write a book. And I fear that I will write a nonfiction book, not that there's anything wrong with that. But being the avid fiction reader I am, I've always wanted to write a novel. A novel you can't put down by page 2. A novel that brings the emotion out of the reader's mind and onto their face. A novel that has my name on it and sells more than 10 copies to friends and family.

So how do you write a novel? What kind of writing should I be doing every day? Do I need an idea fir....

You know, this sounds like I should be taking a class or something. 'Cause I have time for that.

Or do I?