I can’t believe it has been a year and half since I tricked my mom into starting a blog. When I started a blog, my mom was my best fan and she would talk about the writing she used to do. So I asked her to write about how my parents came to live in their present home which they call Otterlanding, and then I created a blog by the same name and posted the entry. I showed my mom “her blog” and challenged her to write once a week so I could post it to the Two Writing Teachers Tuesday Slice of Life.
She’s been blogging once a week ever since. At first she was in a quandary about what to write each week; “My life isn’t very exciting, I do the same things week after week.” I encouraged her to write about her projects, her thinking, her perspective.
When she started getting comments, Mom became worried about how to keep her entries interesting. I told her that comments were “dessert,” nice but not necessary. I encouraged her to write for herself, for her family and friends.
Mom writes about little things she saw or did or overheard and the thoughts and memories triggered by those events. In the first few months of her blogging, I had to edit quite a bit. She mistyped words; her sentence structure was sometimes confusing. But now, she has found her voice and writing every week has improved her typing. I don’t edit much at all except as an administrator of her blog – that is expertise she doesn’t want to take on. She’s realized that photos add more to her story and will post them on her Picasa site for me to download.
When we get together for our usual Saturday lunches together, Mom will talk about her upcoming slice idea. She usually has a few “in the pipeline.” If she is struggling for an idea, sometimes our chats together will foster an idea. Usually I get an email on Sunday with her entry. It has been a fun connection for us, (as though we needed another one,) and it has been especially wonderful for my siblings who live farther away.
wake up and write 