Want to be a writer? (Get used to…)

Want to be a writer?

It won't matter what you write, if you're working with words you will be every day like a teenager in love for the first time.

But if you like working under the hood, you're going to get greasy. If you like cooking, you're going to soil your apron. If you like gardening, you'll want to get used to insect bites and digging dirt out from under your nails.

And if you're a writer, get used to...

• your work being referred to as "text," "verbiage," "romance copy," "fluff," "filler," and other benign but unintentionally uncomplimentary terms.
• everyone changing your work, sometimes making it worse (making you feel unappreciated), and sometimes making it better (making you feel unecessary).
• guarded exchanges at the watercooler because you might write about what you're hearing.
• having 99% of what you write ignored because the headline or first sentence wasn't relevant.

But you will write no matter how many people read you, and even if no one reads you, because it's not entirely about being read, it's about desperately wanting to be read, about entertaining with words.

It's ancient, primal. It's telling a story around the fire.

The glowing monitor in my cloistered office is like the fire of an ancient village and I am a neanderthal raconteur.

[2014-04-30]

c0