• Being a writer

    Date: 2008.12.07 | Category: News | Tags:

    There are good exciting days to being a writer.

    And then there are slogging days.

    Today I slogged.  I slogged for 1500 words.  Yesterday I got 2200 words.  So 1500 is better than 1000 but not a top notch day.

    My hands hurt.  And I wanted to be making gingerbread or spritz cookies or going for a walk.  I wanted to be doing Christmasy stuff. But the deadline is coming, and i really thought I’d be finished by now, so I have to make myself sit at the desk and get the words.

    The story grows and it’s going in the direction it should.  But today it seemed like the most boring story that anyone could possibly imagine.  After all, I knew exactly what was going to happen next and I typed along and typed along and sure enough, it happened. 

    When the time comes and it’s a book, maybe someone else will read it and be stunned or at least entertained.  But today it was putting the sentences together, one key stroke at a time.  Moving the characters like pieces on a chess board.  Tightening the tension here, resolving a small problem there.  One letter at a time, one word at a time.  For 1519 words.

    That’s still part of being a writer and part of the writing life.  Tough as it was today, I still don’t want to trade it in for anything else.