A Writer's Life

The Life of a Writer
Everyone thinks that the life of a writer is so exotic. Maybe they think we actually live the lives of the characters in our stories. Let me tell you how a writer’s life goes…
Up at six a.m. with a need to write. Start the coffee. Cook breakfast while the computer boots up. Eat while I open the word program to my latest book. Sip more coffee and read the last few lines of what I wrote last.
A great idea strikes me! About the story I am writing? Brilliant.
No. My great idea is to go out and sit on my porch on this beautiful morning and write. Ah, good idea. As I go out on the porch I see the leaves have blown in and my hubby bought me the coolest slab of rock that matched the brick of our house and he made me a bench out of it. This looks so cool so I admire it for a while as I straighten up the porch so I can write.
Meanwhile my laptop is waiting patiently for me on the sofa.
As I clean off the porch I notice the recent winds have brought some trash into my yard. Now I am cleaning up the front yard. After that is done I take an extra lawn chair that I no longer need on the front porch because I have this lovely new bench, out to the back yard. Well folks, you guessed it. The wind blew out there too and there is trash to be picked up.
When I am done with the trash I pick up the extra shorts and t-shirts from the hot tub area and a few extra cups that have been left outside. You know what that means: I start a load of laundry and do the dishes.
By the time I get back to the computer the battery is dead. I had unplugged it to take it outside and spent so much time cleaning up that the battery died. So here I sit INSIDE my house finishing the story I had started hours ago.
Exciting isn’t it?

 

More on Procrastination...

For the past two days I have been off. During that time I wrote a reference letter for a friend. Send out a long over due email for a author spotlight in November. And send an e-mail update to someone I am writing an article on.
     Some how I managed to stay off of facebook. However I did watch a bunch of movies that were truly awful. All the while I looked at my laptop and reminded myself I could be doing something positive- writing. But yet I didn't. I went and took a nap instead.
     Before I went to napping I sat on my couch, surrounded by my writing team- a rotty and a golden retriever- who I scolded for not being busy writing by the way, and asked myself the million dollar question. Why are you not writing?
     The answer was part fear- and part not knowing where to go.
     Fear of what, you may ask? Fear that what I write won't be as good as what I imagine in my head. Once I started to write, on my last night off at midnight, was incredible and I hated myself for not jumping in sooner. I wasted two days, I could have been half the way through. But I got held up by fear of not being good enough, so instead I chose not to write. I think I may not ever get that feeling again after last night.
     As for not knowing where to go- I have an outline for the next five or six chapters, but the story writes itself some times. I didn't feel like I would come up with anything worthy so I refused to believe I had a clear and defined path to start with. It is not where I ended up, but it was enough to get me going. I don't think I will make that mistake again either.
     So, from now on the writer in me will have to come up with some new reasons not to do what I love to do so much. And one more reason to want a damn dragon!

The Opposite of Writers Block

I have the opposite problem from Lorne Oliver. What keeps me from writing isn't usually writers block. For me it is Procrastination. The first thing that keeps me from writing is facebook. This social media program is like a drug to me. Before I do anything I want to log on and see what everyone is up to today. Then I jump over to other peoples pages or to my groups and I find four or five hours have passed. So you would think I would be done here. No! Instead I have to rush back to my page to see what everyone is up to since I was there last. Night falls, my day off is over and I have accomplished nothing.
     Twitter has not quite taken over my life yet, but I think that is because I don't send a tweet every time I move or breath. I send a tweet when I have something to share. Yes, defeats the purpose of tweeting, I know. That is what facebook is for. I know. Trust me you don't want me to learn how to tweet and speak tweetspeak because your phone will be blown up with tweets in no time. Lets just leave it at that.
     Then there is netflix. Need I say more? Anyone who knows me knows that I am a movie hound. On my gravestone I want the words "And now for a Feature Presentation. Only old folks will know what that means. It dates back to pre-DVD and Blu-Ray. It was when the movie theater and the video tape showed you previews of movies yet to come out. Then as they lead into the movie you got that message. It makes me happy!
     One has to wonder with such a desire to write and a story in my head why I am not writing? It is not a block. I know exactly what I want to say. Yet I seem to avoid it like the plague. I allow constant distractions to get in my way.
     I even posted that pic of Ironman and his friends on my screen telling me I should be writing. Instead I just stare at them. How cute they all are pointing their fingers at me. Ahh....
     Oh, enough of that. I was writing something. Right.
     See what I mean?