The Downside of Being a Writer

Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money. ~ Jules Renard

I’ve been sick on and off all week with a horrendous cold. One of the problems with being a writer is that there is no sick pay. There aren’t any retirement benefits either. Recently I heard an interview with Lisa Lutz and David Hayward, co-authors of Heads You Lose. Hayward describes himself as a retired poet. Although he probably doesn’t draw a pension from that, it sure sounds good. 

There was a request to see my book cover, so here it is:

Cover Story

“To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself.” ~ Anne Rice

My editor sent me the cover of my book, Free from Hepatitis C. It is like seeing your baby on ultrasound for the first time. I am beside myself with excitement. The left side of the book, along the spine and margin is green marble. In the center is a soft, rosy drawing of an abdomen, featuring a gorgeous liver. The title is above and my name is below the drawing.

The book seems so real now that it has a cover and a liver…

Paleontology

"Writing isn’t hard — no harder than ditch digging." — Patrick Dennis

My new public vow: “No more public vows.” No, I didn’t start my new book on Monday; instead, I edited the one that will be published. Apparently public accountability does not work with me. Good thing I didn’t say I was going on a diet, or I’d be 5 lbs. heavier now.

Today I heard an interview with Richard Leakey (while not working on my book). The interviewer asked Leakey to describe what it is like to work on an archeological dig. Leakey says it is mostly pure drudgery, but it doesn’t feel like drudgery because you believe that you will find something; otherwise you would not do it. And when you do find something, it feels great, and worth the drudgery.

This describes writing. The task itself isn’t much fun, but the occasional discovery or coming together of words is worth every moment.  From where I sit, the major difference between writing and paleontology is that writing doesn’t require sun block or a hat.

Late Blooming

"Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It's a matter of doing everything you can to avoid writing, until it is about four in the morning and you reach the point where you have to write." - Paul Rudnick


Reading is one of my favorite aspects of vacations, especially reading on a plane. Every once in a while, I will read something compelling—even potentially life changing—which happened to me on my way home from Costa Rica. Reading Late Bloomers in a collection by Malcolm Gladwell (found in What the Dog Saw) felt like I was being hit by hope in the form of a two by four.

Gladwell writes about discovering our gifts late in life, exemplified by Ben Fountain, a real estate attorney who gave up his practice in order to write. Fountain worked at his craft for years before success set in. He writes every day from 7:30 a.m. until lunchtime, then breaks for awhile and returns for a few hours before quitting for the day. In other words, he structured his writing as if it were a job, which in his case (and in mine), it is.

So this morning, fresh from vacation, I decide to start my work day earlier—at 7 rather than 9. I get up, brimming with enthusiasm and determination, and before I know it, I am balancing the checkbook, doing laundry, and checking my emails. In other words, I got distracted.  For me and other writers, distraction is like deciding to stop in Miami on a trip from San Francisco to Seattle, and then forgetting about Seattle. My ability to sidetrack my writing is my biggest problem, because once I am on track, I am unstoppable. Ditto for once I am off track.

So today, I state publicly my vow to bloom. Monday morning at 7 a.m. I start my new book.

Blogcation

“Being a writer is like having homework every night for the rest of your life.” ~ Lawrence Kasdan

I am headed to Costa Rica and will be away until mid-April. Although I am looking forward to my vacation, travel tends to stimulate my writing center. I end up with a list of things to write, which distracts me from relaxing. Does a writer ever really get a true vacation? Is it possible to see the world without thinking about how to write about it?

Perspective

"Without words, without writing and without books, there would be no history, there would be no humanity."  ~ Hermann Hesse

I loved the fact that Julie Powell blogged herself to fame in Julie and Julia (okay, so she had to cook too, and that was even harder than blogging).  However, sometimes her blog was whiny and self-absorbed, so when I started my blog, I vowed to remain chaste and shrill-free. It’s too late, the “poor-me” cries are taking over, and inserting themselves like hyphens in my blog.

It started with the endless power failure, followed by a trip to Albuquerque to move my daughter. On the day of the move, we hit some unexpected snags that if I even begin to describe them, I am afraid I will get lost in the Blogmuda Triangle. Upon returning home, the damage from the snow storm (not a metaphorical one, but the one that caused the power failure) had left us with a huge plumbing problem. Today I helped my husband bleed the hot water tank, clear the sediment out of the washing machine, and fix 2 toilets.

In the middle of it all, I managed to write, and despite my complaining, I enjoyed the daffodils and crocus that didn’t seem to notice that there is still a bit of snow on the ground. I suppose if the flowers can bloom in the midst of this weather, I can put a few words on paper. And if I ever really lose my perspective, I can turn on the news, and weep over the tragic earthquake in Japan, and then be grateful that I just went through a little snowstorm.

Writing Chasms

"The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes." ~ Agatha Christie

This week I have had to manage a series of writing obstacles that made me relate to Sylvia Plath. Perhaps I am exaggerating just a tiny bit. Four days of no electricity or Internet created a serious disruption in my schedule. Now I am in San Diego at a conference, which is cutting into my writing time. I heard a wonderfully inspiring talk about a woman who self-published a book which was picked up by a major publisher. It made me want to write even more, but I haven’t had time to read her book let alone write mine.

Sometimes the chasms between where I am and where I want to be seem so deep that I doubt my capacity to navigate them. That’s when I find I can jump farther and higher than I realized.