I have just discovered that there is an app for Writer’s Block. Yes, it’s true. Someone had the where with all to figure out that us writers are occasionally mentally constipated and need a brain laxative of sorts to get things flowing once again. The app is aptly called Writer’s Blocks, see what I did there?! ehehe I even made that a nice hot link so you don’t get lost trying to find what I am speaking about here. I’m a smart ass I know. It becomes me sometimes. Sometimes it just makes me look like a jack ass. Who cares.
I often suffer from not knowing what to write about. Lately I ‘ve been focusing more on a book that I would like to compile and publish, a book of short stories of incidents and situations I’ve encountered in my very bizarre life. I’ve lead a very interesting life and had some pretty wild, and some mild, experiences. I’ve met some great people and I’ve met some looney tunes…and I want to write a book and introduce my readers to them all. Won’t that be fun? eheh…I think it will be for sure. Good thing I have a very good memory, plus I have oodles of journals that I can reference if I forget the details.
I’ve been toying around a bit with Writer’s Block the app and I think I am going to like it – a LOT. Which means I have to throw up $119 to buy the actual program once my free trials is expired in 14 days. But if it works as well as I am hoping it does – and so far so good – it will b well worth it to organize myself for some better, more professional and better writing. Especially if I am really going to put my ass in gear here and do this book I keep talking about.
I’ve talked about writing a book for years. I was personally life-partnered with a publisher for 14 years and she always encouraged me to do it, but I just never felt good enough. So why am I thinking that I am good enough now? Well, for one I have read some books that were published that I thought were terrible and couldn’t believe that a publisher actually picked up the book and did it. I know I can and will write better than some of what I have seen get published. Secondly I just feel like it’s time for me to get off my ass and do it. It’s in me, I can feel it and I know I can do it. I’ve just been a lazy and fraidy cat fuck. It’s a very vulnerable thing to put yourself and your work out there for the public to read. I do it every day with my blogs, so why not with a hard copy book?
I have great inspiration in my writing. I am a big fan of Ivan E. Coyote and S. Bear Bergman for two. They both write in much the same style that I intend to write in – short stories. They compile books based on true short stories of incidents and the goings on in their lives. These two write a lot of about being Butch and now about being Trans also. I shall write about those things too, just from my own perspective and angle. There are not enough Butch writers out here doing this, we need more anyways. (I have hot linked both Ivan and Bear’s names above to their web sites. I encourage all to visit and check them out. They are two of the best LGBT writers alive today. And I guarantee you will love their work. Ivan even has several Youtube videos if you like to hear examples of their work).
I get contacted quite frequently by young Butch girls who are trying to figure out how to be in life. Mostly teenagers and some younger 20 something Butches too. One question came up the other day that intrigued me coming form a 17 yr old. She asked me “If I am Butch does that mean that I have to grow up to be Trans and be a man?” She says her friends say that she is supposed to want to be a man, and that being Butch is only a half way point between the two. I wished like hell I could have sat these girls down and had a really serious conversation with them and learn where they are getting these kinds of thoughts. Today’s world is so confusing for these kids. I can just imagine what it would be like to be growing up Butch in 2016….much different than when I grew up in the 60/70’s and we just didn’t talk about things like this. It’s good that it’s so open now, but is there such a thing as too open? Are there really any boundaries anymore? It seems all so technical now, and there are soooo many words and definitions (remember my recent blog on definitions?) that it confuses even the best of scholars I am sure. So here are these two kids trying to figure out if Butch means you have to choose to be a man when you grow up….without adult guidance; the guidance of someone who is knowledgeable and keen on the subject even, they are destined to flouder until they find the right answers. I am go glad that there are GSAs in most schools now. I should probably be volunteering to help out with the GSA at the local high school here too. Because this stuff frightens me and these kids need mentors and people to look up to who have been where they currently are now.
So, tonight I will work on Chapter 2 of the Washington DC story…I’m sure you’ll see it by week’s end. I’m also certain that it will be more than 2 chapters, so it may take me a bit here. I am going to use Writer’s Blocks to produce the next segment of the story, so I will let you all know how that goes as well.
Peace & Love
~MB
