Sitting down to write is like going on a journey of discovery. While those who've been to exotic and far flung locations to see what they might unearth take a vast array of tools with them, my tools are far simpler. The expeditions I embark on still require as much courage as those who scale mountains and track their way over glaciers. My landscape is an inner world. They might need ropes, picks, warm weather gear and enough supplies to last them untold days of isolation. I only need my pen, paper or computer, imagination and me.

That's the essential ingredient in my writing, though; myself. Anything I write will have that element. It's unavoidable, and until I grew enough as a writer I never did fully appreciate that fact. For a long time I worried that I knew nothing. And while I was young and inexperienced it was most likely true. Even then I had been through some things. I just needed to find the ways to gain access to that information.

When I took on a job at Suite101.com several years ago, I had no idea the things I already knew. My subject is still there, in their archives for all who are interested; Parents' Guide to Reading for Kids. I wrote on reading for kids for almost two full years, writing up fortnightly articles and mining my own knowledge. Yes, I also researched outside what I knew, but the more I read the more I understood I had a vein of material from within my own life. I quit when they stopped paying. It never had been much, but it had paid for my internet connection.

The crooks now sell an ebook from their website with a collection of my articles. I receive nothing of their profit on this ebook. It must be doing okay because they keep it up there.

Aside from that, I did not fully value what I already knew about that topic. I had enough material within me to write some 49 articles on the subject. Okay, some weren't as good as others, but for the most part my articles were good, good enough for the crooks over there to steal and sell and leave me right out of the picture.

I only regret not valuing my own knowledge more. Those same articles I am collecting together, revising and working into my own ebook. My version will be so much better for several reasons. One, the articles will be updated and revised. Two, I am adding two new articles. Three, my version will have more articles than theirs. Four, I put it together. This project is truly my own, not some rip-off put together by someone who didn't even seek my permission to do so in the first place.

How much more do I know on how many other subjects? That is for me to discover. Each day I take my tools, my writer's kit, and set out to discover whatever else is in me. I may need help along the way. That's what being part of a writing group is about. It's why I seek out other opinions, books, websites, and experts. But first I must unearth the raw material from within myself. This requires the discipline of sitting each day, my bottom firmly glued into my chair with that bum glue I mentioned earlier this week.

But essentially, I need to do that. No one else can find out what I know, what I need to know and what interests me. I suppose through all this I'm really trying to say you have to be interested, have a passion. Look at the things that matter to you. Are you concerned about the environment, recycling, family, business? Are you passionate and interested enough to put off other tasks to be involved in that topic? There's a great place to start off with your writing. You already have enough information to tap away at and reveal as you sit and write each day. All you need to do is hold it up to the scrutiny of the others I mentioned before.

After all, the guy who mines the diamonds is not the same one who later skillfully cuts and shapes it into a thing of beauty. And even if he is, as in our case, he doesn't do the same job at the same time. He digs and delves into the rich earth, finds the basic material in its raw and unappealing state, then changes his outfit, cleans his hands and begins the work of revealing the beauty of his find. That's what we need to do. What we know is already there. It only requires the polishing of those other tasks; shaping, chipping, filing, shattering, rubbing and finally, admiring.

Go write and unearth an idea of potential beauty today.

(Although this entry was actually written around nine am on Saturday morning, the blog is set in a different place to where I live. So, please ignore if this shows as another entry for the same day. This is my entry for 16 July, 2005.)