My Challenges and Triumphs in Writing.

Actually, my biggest challenge as a writer is finding ideas to write about.
The old saw that said “Ideas are everywhere” may be true but finding them is the problem .Ideas ! where do they come from?
I know that waiting on the Muse can be frustrating , so what do I do ? Well, for one thing, I go for a walk then ask myself what would I write about today- a person? a place? or something that impressed me recently or in the past?. .After having chosen a theme, I jot down the things that come to me in my reverie in what ever order or confusion in my ever present note book ( I always carry a note book with me which I call my “Idea book” ) for scribbling, then I put it away for the present and go back to it maybe in a few hours or a day (depending on my mood) to see what I’ve got.
I then go through the material I have collected ( you would be surprise at all the things you’ve got within you )I then circle the ones that stand out and begin working on them self editing this or that word ,sentence, phrases even paragraphs in what I call my first draft. Sometimes I rewrite the whole two or three times until I am completely satisfied with the project (no easy task) but nobody say that writing is easy.

My triumphs are when my work is accepted by the big publishing houses for publication ( I was a semi-finalist in the last Poetry Contest sponsor by the International Society Of Poets in January 2003) My poem “Man, foolish man” was selected for publication in the “ Patterns of Life”(ISBN:0-7951-5239-6) anthology and the “Sound of Poetry “CD collection by the International Library Of Poetry.

Michael Lance Kersting