Saturday, August 23, 2008

No More Slacking Off

Boy, I've really been slacking. Five whole days with no new posts. I hope I'm not disappointing anyone. :)
On the up side, I have been working on my book a little bit, and I plan on continuing that trend over the weekend. C's brother, Z, is here for the weekend and they'll most likely be cracking out on gaming. So that pretty much leaves me to fend for myself in terms of finding stuff to do for the next two days. Fortunately though, I need that kind of nothingness to get my ass in gear and get some writing done! I'm excellent at taking random things and making them last ALL weekend, which is good to keep from getting bored, but bad when it distracts me from getting stuff done! But this time, the dishes are cleared, the laundry is done, and the Olympics will be over. Time to be productive.
When I graduated from college eight years ago, a bachelor's degree in English in hand, I wasn't sure where I was gonna go from there. I took the summer off to dog sit these two retired greyhounds who belonged to a fairly wealthy couple in Stockbridge. Their business gave them the summers off and they enjoyed traveling and being away from home quite often. It was an easy paying gig, (I mean, I got to stay at a cool house and play with dogs all day!) and it gave me time off from writing 20 page papers without having to jump into the work force immediately. Ah, those were the days. :)
But I also thought a lot about becoming a writer. Every time someone asked me what I got a degree in, after my answer they would say, "Oh, are you gonna be a teacher?"
"Um, no. I want to be a writer."
The response to that varied, depending on who I was talking to. Some people thought it was cool and asked what I wanted to write about, which at that time I had no idea. And others would ask me, almost mystified, what my parents thought about it. My father being an English teacher and my mother being the supportive woman she is, had no problem with that and were very proud when I became a reporter. I believe my mom still has all of the articles I've ever written, which is over three years' worth!
But the book thing never took off like I hoped it would. I changed my topic almost every month, never being able to find that one character, that one angle, that one story, that really captured my interest to develop it. I kept thinking, I've got time. I'm in a place in my life right now where I can do anything, go anywhere, be whatever I want. I'm writing on a regular basis so that should help to keep my creative juices flowing.
Unfortunately, though, writing other people's stories never left enough for me to write my own.
So I left. After three and a half years of town meetings, special events, feature pieces, even health magazine articles, I had had enough. It was time to go out and do something for myself, and that something was to find my story.
I left my hometown at age 26, the first time since graduating college at 22. I went east to stay with my sister and her husband while I tried to figure out what to do with myself. C and I were already dating by that time, which also helped in my decision to move away from home. Of course, at the time we said it was casual, but you obviously see how that's changed. :)
It was then I thought about writing about the quarter life crisis; you know, being in your mid 20s, out of school, but not quite in a career, where you feel as if you have every opportunity at your disposal. Your choices don't have to be permanent, they just have to keep you going forward. And even then, if you make a mistake, so what? There's plenty of time to fix it and move onto something else. The world is waiting for you to emerge and make your mark on it.
Now I'm 30.
Um, where the hell did all that time go??
So this is it. It's time to quit with all the excuses and weeks, months, YEARS of procrastination. I have found a story, which other people have told me is dramatic enough to be compelling, with characters I'm looking forward to developing. I'm outlining chapters, doing character sketches, and have had the first line down for awhile now. I even had a dream the other night that I had written the book and there were two publishers negotiating its publication.
Now I just have to do the work to make that dream a reality.
What is this book about, you ask? Well, I think I'll save that for my next blog.

No comments: