All writers cope with the daily dilemma of living life fully or sitting down to write. If you aren't out there getting your feet wet in it, you won't have anything to write about and if you don't take a good amount of time sitting down and writing about your experiences you won't have a true impetus or drive for your craft and may lose perspective of your writing objective. It's called writer's block. Writer's block is a terminal disease I've never had and never will. I have quite a backlog of ideas just waiting for me to get to them. I'm afraid I'll never have enough time to finish all of them. Only writers will really know what I am saying and understand this entry at all. That's the main problem. We're the most misunderstood people in the world but most of the world is unaware of it. They think they know us. We're that lazy slob that won't get a job. We spend way too much time reading and writing everything down. We can't help it. It's in our genes and our blood.
In order for the writing life to work well, a balance must be prevalent which is tricky and, at times, fraught with peril, exhaustion and (most times) crushing frustration. Add to that, the drive it takes to succeed business-wise and you will have enough stress and tension to break stones! We don't show it on the surface, however. We're busy writing about the writing experience- or something else. There is always something to write about- it's inevitable.
It may be very difficult for a world of non-writers to believe that a profession, in which it appears that you sit and type all day, to be anything more than a very cushy life. If they could see the inner workings in our heads played out in their own, they would run screaming from their own body- if that were possible. Most people would not be able to take it, I'm convinced. (All my fellow writers are saying, "Amen to that, sister!") All of this is the basis for a misunderstanding which has never been discussed well enough between writers and non-writers. To understand who and what the writer is you have to read between the lines and visualize. It is like staring through the bars of a cage to see a tiger. A good writer is well hidden behind his world of words and he likes it that way. We may not want to be found. We may not want to be personally understood. Sometimes, we don't care if you read what we write or not. Our motivations are the most mysterious aspect of our profession but not to us. Figuring us out is your problem- not ours !
This may sound off putting but what I wanted to convey the most in writing this entry, has more to do with the complicated life of being a writer. We may or may not be antisocial but for some strange reason we prefer a blank page and a pen to all other forms of communication and enjoy the fact that we do this better than most people. Given enough time at the keyboard or writing pad, we are in our realm (our kingdom, if you will) and there is a whole world out there to illuminate through the written word. It isn't just words....it's life.
The Castle Lady
