Worst. blogger. ever.

So I realize that I'm not the most prolific blogger ever. I barely update this blog once a week. I think the problem, which has been germinating in my mind for a while now, is that I stink at taking notes. For whatever reason, I feel like I should sit down in front of the computer and generate a catchy piece of prose with a nothing more than a little knuckle-cracking.

Currently, I'm reading "The Year of Magical Thinking" by Joan Didion, who I've always enjoyed very much but haven't read really since high school. Unfortunately, this tale is about the death of her husband and how she processed the grief that followed. Not a story full of rainbows and peppermint sticks, but one worth reading nonetheless. I'm not very far into the story, but Didion notes that her husband, the writer John Dunne, always carried small personalized cards around with him so that when inspiration struck, he would not lose his thought. Didion says that he often chided her if she forgot her notebook, because "the ability to make a note when something came to mind was the difference between being able to write and not being able to write."

Though I obviously don't have as sad an experience as Didion, I experience this loss of jewels of thought often. Frequently, I write in my head while driving or walking or at the gym, and though these little verbal nuggets come together quickly and snowball into entire cohesive thoughts on life, I don't remember them later.

This reminded me of another author I read, Ann Lamott, who noted that she also always carried a very plain 3x5 card with her at all times, so that in case she was walking the dog and found the perfect lines of dialogue for her characters, she didn't have to a) rush back to her writing and take care of it, therefore halting life and perhaps inspiration, and/or b) forget.

Prior to this blog, I had a journal which I had lapsed from using. I think these episodes are a good reminder to me that I don't have to fore go the privacy and freedom of my journal and can in fact use it as a springboard for the writing on this page, creating a more bountiful offering for my audience.

Here's hoping.