As the newest member of Ascribe Writers it is my turn (I was coerced) to write about writing. Apparently, I am allowed to focus on anything as long as my musings revolve around the fact that I am a writer.
Well, if that’s true, why is all my written work locked up in legal files that were presented to the courts, insurance companies or employers? Oh right, that’s part of my day job. You know that job… it’s the one we all do so we can do the things we really want to do in our ‘spare time’.
Thus, the writer’s dilemma gets played out over and over again. Spare time exists after work, after supper, after walking the dog, after, after, after! Writing comes after everything else has been done. Well if your world is anything like mine often there is little time or energy left to pursue my lifelong dream of being a real writer.
As I slowly approach retirement from my day job I have discovered to my chagrin that I have been lying to myself for years. Writing doesn’t come after, publishing comes after. That’s what I have been waiting for, the time I need to polish all the words into some coherent package that is readable and therefore publishable. I have craved time to do the rewriting.
The truth is most of us write all the time; in our imaginations, on scraps of paper, in private journals, etc. Perhaps you should pause and be aware of all the words that tumble out of you. Capture them, play with them and know that one day you will sit down and perhaps polish them into something more. Until then simply do what Toni Morrison did “use them to make sense of your world.” That way you will never run out of things to write about.
Hello Joan
Hope you are well.
Tracy