When people ask me, “What do you do?” or “What have you been doing?” I tell them I write. That answer generates one of the following two responses:
- The “D Look:” Disdain/dread/derision/or doubt followed by “Oh.” These people change the subject quickly—usually to something about themselves. And these people usually are my relatives.
- Curiosity: “I think I’d like to be a writer. How do you do it?”
I prefer Response #2. I will have a conversation with those folks—as opposed to sneaking out the back door and jogging across state lines as in the case of Response #1.
I encourage “wannabe writers” to pursue that goal. Especially if they say it has “always been a dream” of theirs to write a book. I am really BIG on pursuing one’s dreams. You’ll see that theme pop up all the time on this site. It gives me a reason to get out of the sack in the morning. (Besides having to pee.)
From the poet Langston Hughes:
Hold fast to dreams.
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
I figure there’s plenty of room for more writers in this world. Like party guests, cookies, and shoes, the more the merrier. If there were more writers producing good stuff, then maybe more people would be reading. That would be terrific.
Years ago I enrolled in a writing class (at the coolest university ever). We the students periodically read our work aloud in class. When I met with the instructor at her office for a critique, I told her, “I wanna be a writer.” She looked at me quizzically and said, “If you write, you are a writer. Just because the world hasn’t recognized that fact yet, doesn’t mean it isn’t true.”
So how do you go from “wanna be” to “being” a writer?
Write. Write. And write on.
Let’s be dreamers together. If you have any questions about writing or the writing life, let me know. Happy to share my perspective.
