Writing

What my writing efforts look like on paper!
by Phillip Hoyle

Writing used to be a job. It was part of my profession as a minister and educator. I wrote notices, the occasional column for the church newsletter, and recruitment letters for volunteer singers and teachers. I worked hard to write well and in my thirties began writing curriculum resources for religious education. In my forties I began writing resources for a publisher and did so for ten years. In my fifties I began writing as an artist, at least that is how I think of it. I wrote then for myself stories from my life experience, pieces for magazines, short stories, and more. In my sixties (I’m still in them) I wrote a novel and so far several hundred stories of my life, vignettes of life from different points of view. And as you know if you are reading this, I keep a blog related to art matters—mostly the arts in which I am involved directly.

These days I am not going it alone, but while I don’t have an editor like I had at the publishing company, I have two groups that hear my pieces. Reading them aloud always sharpens my ear to mistakes and awkward expressions.

I write a bit almost every day and in so doing start stories I wasn’t planning to write. Writing is not a job but still some kind of vocation and always a joy. Still its joy demands some kind of discipline that to me is more like play—play among the world of ideas and words.

If you are interested to read more of what I write, follow this blog artandmorebyphilhoyle.blogspot.com. Also I contribute occasional pieces to sageoftherockies.blogspot.com.

Denver, 2015