Writing Is Like A Puppy by Alan Anderson

I love dogs. I love holding a puppy and even smelling puppy breath. My writing is like a puppy. You ask, “What do you mean?” That’s a good question. Here is why I liken my writing to a puppy.

As a dog lover it is wonderful to see a puppy grow into a healthy mature adult dog. It’s fun to watch puppies gain their confidence in walking and running. They also have little “accidents” as they are growing up. You may know what I mean.

I’m still growing as a writer. Like a growing pup I can have a writer’s “accidents.” These are things like too many “ly” or using “ing” words too often in my writing.

A puppy need not be a pure bred for me to love it. The sweetest dog I ever had in my life was a Border Collie Spaniel cross. She was one of my best friends. She had the personality of a working dog as well as a companion dog. She would embrace life with gusto during the day and snuggle on my easy chair with me in the evening.

I don’t worry about my writing being a pure bred either. What I mean is, I don’t class myself as a fiction or non-fiction writer, I just write. I love to write about real life that may appear dark or somber with a gleam of hope ahead. That is what my blog Scarred Joy is all about. Scarred joy is like my working dog writing so to speak.

I also love to write stories based on real life experiences. Right now I’m working on a story of a young boy with a rare illness. In addition I have another story of a boy and his grandfather. It is about their relationship as grandfather lives in the fog of Alzheimer’s disease. I want to write this story as one suitable for children. Both these stories may be like a companion dog writing.

It’s fun to play with a puppy and see her or him run after a ball and catch it. One of the dogs I loved became skilled at catching Frisbees. As she became older she had more injuries and we had to stop playing Frisbee. My pup had grown old. She lived a long life for a dog. I was with her during all the chapters of her life right to the final sentence.

If God grants me more years and to experience old age here is what I hope and pray for. If the day comes I can no longer hold a pen I pray I can look back on words I have written and know they brought comfort to broken hearts.

I also pray I will have crossed the paths of other writers and played with them. In other words, I like to have a writing buddy. I like to know other writers. My present writing buddy and I have never met in person. We exchange emails and send each other pieces of our writing to critique. It is a lot of fun. My writing buddy is precious to me.

When my days are done I pray my writing will have matured and been noticed by those who hurt yet see hope ahead. Just like an old faithful dog I pray I will have made a difference in the lives of people. That’s what a good dog does.

Blog: scarredjoy.wordpress.com