triangleareafreelancers.org Blog

What matters most

September 25, 2008 on 4:18 pm | In 2008, John Wood, Observations, Writing | No Comments

As many of you know, I teach freshman English at an area high school. As a first year teacher, it’s extremely easy to manage my free time – because I don’t have any! Add to that my position as a football coach, and I’m lucky to ever see my wife when she’s awake. With my endless teacher to-do list and my hours spent on the football field, I’m missing the one thing that means the most to me – my time to write.

Writing is a catharsis of sorts for me. I have so many emotions and feelings over the course of any one day as a teacher and football coach – even as a husband and stepfather. Writing allows me to funnel that emotional energy into something useful and productive – whether it is my non-fiction magazine writing or my fiction novel writing. When you lose an outlet of expression, those feelings build up and begin to really affect your life.

I am finding that it is essential to find time to write everyday. My psyche needs that freedom of expression. It’s like my soul acts like a pressure cooker without a release valve. I have to get my words down on paper.

I took part in the Poetry Slam competition, in conjunction with sparkCON, last Saturday night in Moore Square. Just being immersed in the language, whether my words or the words of the other poets, soothed my soul like a warm towel draped across my face. Like a long, tall, cool drink on a hot summer afternoon. The saying, “You don’t know what you’ve until it’s gone” is so apropos as a description of my life right now.

I have now promised myself that I will write something – ANYthing – every single day. I owe it to myself. This is the first step to regaining my creative muse. There is a section from the song “Breathe (2AM)” by Anna Nalick that sums up my situation perfectly:

“2 AM and I’m still awake, writing a song
If I get it all down on paper, it’s no longer inside of me,
Threatening the life it belongs to…
And I feel like I’m naked in front of the crowd
’Cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud
And I know that you’ll use them, however you want to…”

 I ache when I cannot write. I actually have a physical reaction now when I fail to release the words that are inside of me. We owe it to ourselves to obey the muse, to obey the needs of our writer’s soul, to do what we need to do as writers to actually BE writers. A smart man once said you cannot call yourself a writer unless you actually write.

 I can once again call myself a writer.

- John Wood

Hello world!

August 29, 2007 on 8:33 pm | In 2007, General, John Wood, Writing | No Comments

My name is John V. Wood, and I’m the webmaster of this little venture. I’ve been a member of TAF since August of 2005, and I can honestly say this group has changed my life.

I went from being a writer who just talked about writing, to actually becoming a working freelance writer.

Join us. Learn something. Guaranteed.