On Writing...

On Writing...A long-time popular definition of writing went something like, “Writing’s easy: just take a knife, open a vein.” I once wrote my definition of writing: The excruciating ecstasy of transforming gray matter to black type. However you define writing, it’s hard work. A writer’s life is a hard one, and often thankless. Sometimes the people charged with selling and promoting your book never even read it. No matter how many good books you write, each new one (especially if a new concept or new series or genre) is just another time you have to prove yourself. Most folks, I think, assume writing is easy, especially if you don’t complain a lot about your craft. But they have never faced a thick stack of blank paper waiting to be filled only by that open vein. A writer’s job is 24/7/365, which usually draws guffaws from folks who are not writers. Other writers understand that it could never be any other way. Writing is more than a job, a commitment, a mindset; it just is. You are either a writer or you are not. Writers and their readers are a different matter. I liken the relationship to a grandmother and her grandchildren; it can’t get much better than that. Your readers love you, appreciate you, and want you. To others, you may be more a thorn in the side. If I sound slightly disgruntled, perhaps it’s because it’s the beginning of a new year and no one I usually write for seems to need me to write anything. That is not a problem to me; I have more to write than I can possibly ever write so I see this as an opportunity. Opportunity is what abounds for writers today. I love that writers (good writers and bad writers) can put their books online, share them a chapter, even a sentence, at the time, and pretty much hook-up with their readers at will. Why not?! I’m always getting requests from wanna-be/got-a-book-in-them writers on what to do. Today the options are only as limited as your imagination. I am imagining all kinds of new ways to write to my readers. Some are possible, others not quite yet (my brain right to their brain, for example), but are coming online, so to speak, faster than the speed of transforming gray matter to black type. Gray matter to gray matter…hmm…I shall try to telepath a story direct to my grandkids sitting in their school desks today. So, teachers, if you see them incomprehensibly giggle in the middle of math, you’ll know my new writing style is working. My vein to your brain. Saves time, printing cost, and no “the computer is down” or downloading from amazon. Writing. What a joy! What a job! Guess I better get to it, hey?