writing exercise – The Indecisive Eejit

I am in awe of the people who look at the daily prompts everyday and can manage to string together legible pieces of writing.

I swore a couple of months back that I was going to try and participate more often, I even took heed of the words on a strangers blog, when they said, look at the prompt and then just write about the first thing that comes to mind.

I look at the Daily Prompt every day and the first thing that comes to mind is “Ah for f*ck sake” as the subject matter goes whizzing high above my head.

I am not an unintelligent person, that said, I am not the brightest pixie in the forest either. Sure my grammar and punctuation need work and I’d be scuppered without spell check, but sometimes I can manage to string a sentence together and if I am really lucky, it’s relatively sensible.

So what is this strange aversion (disinclination) I seem to have for the prompts? I’ve been giving it a lot of thought, and I’ve discovered what the problem is. It’s me!

After 6 – 7 months of blogging, I still don’t trust myself to write the things I want to and I still find it hard to open up. With regards to the prompts, I am scared to write the first thing that comes into my head, because lets face it, what I am making for tomorrow nights tea is not going to be to everyones taste and is probably going to be unrelated to the chosen subject matter as well.

So what’s the solution. Well firstly I need to serve myself a huge slice of ‘Get the feck over yourself’ and conquer my fears with regards to commenting and subject matter. I need to spend less time worrying about what others will think and just write. I did consider deactivating my Facebook page, and that may yet happen, because it’s easier to write when you don’t think people who actually know you are reading. In fact I am going to stop telling people in my real life that I even write, because I think to be honest my friends just humour me.

Secondly I am going to serve myself an equally proportioned slice of ‘you have to at least try’. I mean what’s the worst that can happen, it’s not like I am going to be burnt at the stake for crimes against the blogging community if I write a post that reminds me of the Prompt subject, but means bugger all to anyone else. Chances are they will read it and say “Ooo that’s a strange one” and to be fair to them I resemble that remark so I can hardly grumble about it.

Most challenges run Monday – Friday or days in between and few run at the weekend when I have more time. I may have to ask Mr Okay, What If? for a sneak peek on a Friday, because I like his challenges.

Tomorrow I have Steve’s Monday Music Quiz to look forward to, it’s nice and simple for an eejit like me :)

So here is a disclaimer, if you read a post from me on a Daily Prompt and you think it’s in no way related to the question they asked, just keep it to yourself! I already know I’m an eejit and I am appreciative of the fact you read it at all! :)

Daily Prompt: A Little Sneaky

Are writing prompts a useful exercise, or do you find them to be too limiting and/or hokey?

Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I will never be known as the brightest pixie in the forest. I would consider myself of average intelligence. My grammar is certainly a little rough around the edges, especially with regards to the words to and too, a fact that drives my Sister up the wall! I am however trying to improve myself, I purchased a book called “Grammar for Grown Ups”, if I ever grow up and get around to reading it, hopefully you will see an improvement.

I like the Daily Prompt section of WordPress, infact it is one of the first posts I look for on my train journey home. sometimes however, I am left a little disappointed.

Most people will look at the prompt and the cogs and gears inside their heads will automatically start to turn, allowing them to produce not only something read worthy, but usually something pretty amazing, a classic example of great spin’s being “Ok, What if?”

The scenario with my brain is a much different thing, I read the daily prompt and the response is “what the fu…….r goodness sake do they mean by that?” at which point all the cogs and gears in my head grind to a halt. I’ll leave it for a couple of hours and then return, only to find that the old brain synapses have still not fired and usually at that point I give up.

Here’s the thing, it probably doesn’t matter what I write, and it certainly shouldn’t matter what anyone else thinks of it. It’s a ‘Daily Prompt’ and it is there for the other participants and I to read, digest and portray it as we see fit. I just need to remind myself of this fact when I feel like turning away from one.

So in light of this post, from this day forward I intend to try a few more of the Prompts that I would normally have swept to the side. I am also apologizing in advance for the fact that you may perhaps read one and think, “What the feck is that eejit on about”. Welcome to the inner workings of my brain, I don’t understand it myself a lot of the time, we are still becoming acquainted.