HINT for Beth’s Birthday Hunt Clue #2

A  B  C  D . . .
Z  Y  X  W . . .

If you still don’t get it, email me 🙂

I have the exact wrong kind of personality for being a writer.

I hate waiting.  I’m a total plow-ahead type.  I’m impatient and overly fond of instant gratification.  I’m liable to act first and think later more often than I care to admit.  And I want results now!  (Come to think of it, I sound a lot like a preschooler, which may explain why I write for that age group :))

I blame it on my zodiac sign.  I’m a ram, after all, and they are not known for their tiptoe-along-the-sidelines approach to life, but rather for barging headlong at whatever is in their path!

Anyway, take all that burning impatience and match it up with a career that requires months and months (well, let’s be honest, often years!) of waiting – for the writing process itself, which takes time; for my agent to decide whether a new ms is good enough to submit; for editors to read and ponder and pass or accept; and if they do accept, for an artist to be chosen, and then draw/paint the book; and then for printing, shipping, and finally publication if I’m lucky –  and you’ll see why I should really stay away from caffeine 🙂

But I’ll tell you why I stick with being a writer, in spite of the frustration, the waiting, the lack of guarantees.

It’s because I love to write and can’t imagine doing anything else.

It’s because every now and again, a little idea I had becomes a new book, and that book makes its way to classrooms and homes where it hopefully brightens the day a little, whether by encouraging a child to believe in himself the way Phyllis does, or help a child know she’s not alone in her conflicted feeling about the arrival of a new sibling like Rose, or just learn about something new that they find interesting, like freight trains or airplanes or construction vehicles.

It’s because sometimes, when I visit kids in classrooms, one shy hand will go up and its owner will give voice to the dream he or she has of becoming a writer, and the fact that he or she has had the chance to meet a writer makes that dream feel more possible.  And that writer is me.

So the next time I’m banging my head, ram-like, against the wall in frustration and proclaiming that I’m not cut out to be a writer but should go get a job at the local Stop-and-Shop, you may feel free to tell me sharply to knock it off and get back to work!

Because a writer is who I am.

I would just like to say that I would NOT have made a good pioneer.


Really.


I’m way too fond of modern conveniences like coffee makers, central heating, and indoor plumbing.  How did those poor people face the day without a nice hot shower?  Lyndon B. Johnson, our former president who wasn’t even a pioneer, said, “Every man has the right to a Saturday night bath.”  Really?  Once a week?


Not only that, but as soon as cold weather hits I’m all about staying warm.  I don’t know about you, but heading out into sub-zero temperatures to fetch water and slop the hogs wearing nothing but buffalo skins or whatever does not sound fun.  No down jackets or GORE-TEX or thermacheck fleece for the pioneers!


So it may come as a surprise to you that I like to write my first drafts by hand.


That’s right.  Good ol’ pen and paper.


There is something about physically writing down the words that helps the cogs turn.  I like the feel of the pen in my hand moving across the paper as the words flow from my mind.  Somehow, it helps.  Once I’ve got a first draft, I type it into my high-tech very un-pioneer-like Mac book and revise from there.  But the initial ideas always begin as ink on paper.  Is that backward?  Or just quaint?


Now don’t go thinking I’m turning all old-fashioned on you.  I didn’t say parchment and quill.  I’m not about to trade in the Dogmobile (for the uninitiated, that’s my 2002 Toyota Sienna) for a horse and buggy.


Although I do love horses.


And actually, what with the holidays approaching, a sleigh and some jingle bells might be kind of fun…


Maybe there’s a hint of pioneer in me after all!  But I draw the line at slopping the hogs if I’m only going to get a bath on Saturday!


What about you?  Do you like to write on a computer or by hand?  What’s your favorite modern convenience – the reason you couldn’t be a pioneer?  Please share your comments!

Lest you be wondering why you did not hear from me Saturday or Sunday, let me hasten to assure you that I was NOT slacking off at the post!  (I know, I’m such a punster!)


Since this is my blog, I get to call the shots (mwa-ha-ha, such power!) and I have decided that I will post on weekdays when there is serious work to be avoided, and not on weekends when I can legitimately be away from my desk without feeling guilty 🙂  Good plan, no?  And I intend to stick with it until I change my mind, which may happen at any moment!


Now, on to today’s important topic:  Mondays.


Poor Mondays.  They get such a bad rap.  Through no fault of their own, everyone hates them.


Except me.  Being just a tad contrary by nature, I actually like Mondays!  Mondays are like morning:  full of possibility.  Who knows what good things could happen this week?  I could get a great idea and write the best story I’ve ever written!  My agent could call and say the four little words that are music to my ears – I’ve got an offer!  I could know all the answers to the Sporcle Minute Morsel!


I realize my fondness for Mondays springs from the fact that I am one of the fortunate few who love what they do.  Which is not to say it’s easy.  As A.A. Milne said, “Ideas may drift into other minds, but they do not drift my way. I have to go and fetch them. I know no work manual or mental to equal the appalling heart-breaking anguish of fetching an idea from nowhere.”  Truer words were never spoken!


Except these by Elizabeth Berg:  “What you have to be is in love. With writing. Not with ideas about what to write; not with daydreams about what you’re going to do when you’re sucessful. You have to be in love with writing itself, with the solitary and satisfying act of sitting down and watching something you hold in your head and your heart quietly transform itself into words on a page.”


I guess it’s about achieving balance.  Writing is hard work.  You have to love it to do it.  But although it can be frustrating and difficult, it can also be so satisfying and rewarding that it can make every day, even Monday, worthwhile!


Share your views in the comments!  What’s your favorite day of the week and why?  What’s writing like for you – pleasure, pain, or somewhere in between?  And, perhaps most importantly, how good are you at Sporcle?!