Last week, I posted about the things I don’t like about writing (Ten Things I Hate About Writing).
This week, I’m happy to say, I’ve listed ten things I DO like about writing. And believe me, there are far more good things than bad.
1. I can write wherever I like, indoors or out, using a pen and a pad of paper, or the “Notes” app on my iPad, or my laptop. I don’t have to drive anywhere; I don’t have to leave the house early to be sure I get a parking spot. Hence, the odds of getting a speeding ticket or a dent in my car’s bumper from someone bashing into it in at work are drastically reduced.
2. I can hang out with my dog all day. He sleeps under my desk, his gentle snoring accompanying the click of my keyboard as I type away. He reminds me to get up occasionally and take him (and myself) for a nice brisk walk. Bonus – I get some of my best ideas while we’re out walking.
3. I can set my own hours. On most weekdays I’m up by six or six-thirty AM. But if I want to sleep later, I can. When I’m on a deadline I’m up with the chickens – four or four-thirty AM. But at least I know I can take a nap in the afternoon if I need it. (And at my age, I often need it.)
4. I can wear whatever I like. At the moment, for instance, I’m in fuzzy, pea-green socks, the jeans I wore yesterday, and a baggy maroon sweater. While I could remain in my pajamas all day, I don’t. One must maintain some sort of a standard. I’m sure the Dowager Countess of Grantham would agree.
5. I don’t have a boss. But I do work with an editor and an agent. Luckily, a relationship with an editor is far more democratic than one with a boss. When a boss tells you to do something, you say ‘yes, right away,’ and you do it. But a working relationship with an editor is a collaborative – and thus a much more fulfilling – effort. That’s not to say it isn’t difficult at times, or fraught with stress when you’re given last-minute copy edits or asked to rewrite the second half of your book in two weeks; but we both understand that at the end of the day, it’s about making the book the very best it can be.
6. I don’t get caught up in office gossip. While traditional publishers typically offer a private Facebook author page where we writers can talk, complain, compare notes, and vent our spleen, it’s generally very supportive in nature. Unlike typical water cooler talk, which can be the opposite of supportive.
7. No one steals my lunch from the office fridge anymore, or uses my tub of butter. (I know you used it, you heinous toasted-bagel-with-butter thief, because I saw the crumbs in the tub. Guilty as charged. Your punishment? Buy your own damn butter from now on.)
8. I don’t have to participate in those horrible office pot-luck luncheons anymore. You know the ones…where five people bring in actual, homemade food, 17 people bring in brownies from a boxed mix, three people bring a jar of applesauce, and the guys bring…a litre bottle of soda. Or napkins. And the same handful of people clean up the mess afterwards while everyone else vanishes. Sign me up!
Erm, no…on second thought, don’t.
9. I can invent people, plots, families, even entire worlds. And I can lose myself in those same creative inventions for hours…days…weeks. Although I usually know where I’m going when I write, sometimes my characters take me by surprise. In a recent scene, for instance, the female lead was furious at a male character. She went to his apartment to confront him. I figured they’d have a heated argument, say hurtful things to each other, and then she’d storm out.
Things got heated, all right, but not quite in the way I expected. Yet it rang true. Sometimes a writer has to get out of the way and let the characters take over. And in this case, they (ahem) certainly did.
10. I get to do what I love to do the most – make up stories that (hopefully) entertain people and take them outside of themselves and their troubles for a couple of hours – and I get to have fun doing it. I might even manage to make a living at it someday.
But (and don’t tell anyone this) – even if I didn’t make a dime, I’d still write. Because…well, simply put – I love it. Nothing else is as satisfying as typing “The End,” knowing that I’ve delivered the very best story I could.
It really doesn’t get any better than that.
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