Entry #663588, added on 08-14-09 @ 10:00 am EDT
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| How To Know You're A Writer by Kerrie Flanagan | Entry #663588 |
This was posted to the BookSpa list (linked to the left) today and I thought I'd share it. Of course, I had to add my own thoughts (in italics).
It is impossible for you to read a book without a red pen in hand, so you can edit the already published and edited book. I use a pencil, since it IS already published.
You go to set the table and you find ideas you had jotted down on a napkin -- a cloth napkin. No, but never mind the sticky notes and paper scraps here and there around my house if you visit. I don't own cloth napkins.
You dread facing the blank computer screen so much that you you'd rather pick the grime out of your stove with a toothpick, then sit down and start writing. Ohh.. but I love blank screens/pages. They're full of possibility! And who says I have grime in my stove? 
You get a SASE in the mailbox and you either rip it open right then and there to get the good/bad news or you let it sit on your desk for a week because you are afraid to see what is inside. I ripped it open. Might as well go into sulking mode now instead of later.
You find yourself saying, "Gee Beth, I'm sorry your dog died, can I write a story about it?"
You move your bed into the dining room and your computer into your bedroom, so you can claim your bedroom as a home office on your taxes. Uh, I put a daybed in my den and filled the walls with my personal stuff because I live here! No write off. If I ever need it I may reconsider.
You eagerly anticipate the release of the new Writer's Market and then when you do get it, you reverently place it next to the family Bible. When you're indie, you don't need Writer's Market. You need the internet and LOTS of time to put your name out there, 'cause no one else is going to! 
You become so engrossed in your writing that you constantly embarrass your children because you're still in your pajamas when you pick them up from school. Luckily for my school-aged child, the bus brings him home, but the mailman does his best not to laugh when he brings packages to the door.
Your fictional characters become so real that you start adding them to your prayer list. 
You walk into your bedroom at night and your spouse has set the mood with candles, flower, and music, all for a romantic evening and you say, "Not tonight honey, I've got to keep writing." Hm, a romance writer would be crazy to give up the ... uh, research opportunity.
Kerrie Flanagan is a freelance writer and the director of Northern Colorado Writers.
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