Jotting Down A Life
  • Home
  • Poetry
    • Special Poems
  • Stories
  • Pictures
  • Memoirs
  • Blog
  • Other Worthy Places

On Being a Almost-Writer

1/12/2012

2 Comments

 
_ Since I am not a published author (in the real sense, in the sense that gets you in bookstores autographing an honest for-real physical paper page with something like “To Joey, Great to hear about your mole that looks like Mary singing the Magnificat, - Steve”), I never get asked where I get my ideas. Well, besides my Mom. Sometimes I think that is not in the sense of “That was a really stellar idea!” as in more of, “I raised you, I know what you read as a kid growing up and where you got grass stains on your pants, but for Pete's sake I don't know where you get that fool stuff you write about. I can't show that to the ladies down at Bingo!”

I guess it is good that I don't get asked where I get my ideas, because I would have to admit that sometimes I get my ideas from my dog, as we sit on the porch and share a cheap cigar and a Brandy Old Fashioned while watching daylight disappear. (With this, I give away my heritage a bit, as most Brandy Old Fashioned drinkers are from Wisconsin. Alas, I no longer reside in the motherland.) The rest of the time I get my ideas from going through life, or deriving an idea from some other work. (For example, my Conversations with Dog series is obviously modeled on Boston Legal, where the two main characters discuss the events of the episode on the balcony at the end of the show. I know, that wasn't the biggest mystery to figure out if you've read even half of one of those stories.)

Nonetheless, I am an Almost-Writer. Recently promoted from a Not-Writer. I have “published” things on Scribd, for free. I have put some things on my own website. And...well, that's it. However, I haven't always written. Oh sure, in school I loved writing, scribbled things on loose leaf paper...even typed some and sent them to magazines in college. I had ideas about being the next great novelist, an angry young writer, perhaps. The guy with a pen and an eye for that quirk of life that delight the reader. However, in a quirk, I started not-writing at age 22, after college.

At first I stopped writing because I was newly married and newly employed. So I thought it would be a grand idea to focus there. You know, there was someone new to pay attention to, someone that if I didn't pay enough attention to would give me back the wrong attention. Plus, that job thing was new and a bit time-consuming and seemed the ticket to a fun life with a few goodies. Then, before you know it, I had little Rumpelstiltskins running around the house, being all demanding with diapers filled to the brim and all that goes with that. (It seems, now, looking back, that they went from birth to running in minutes, although my wife, who swears she took the brunt of the late night feedings, swears it took a millennial.) And one thing led to another, one year led to another...and although I wrote the occasional short piece, a once-in-a-while poem when my muse absolutely demanded and threatened never to come back if I didn't write this one down, late at night....I was, when I woke up, a not-writer.

I had all the excuses, some of which I so perfected and wound into my life that I still use them today. You could say I am a professional at the use of some of these, and creative in applying them. Anyhow, to list them in no particular order, I found I:was too tired from work.
  • was too tired from work
  • wanted to give the kids some attention.
  • didn't stop watching TV soon enough that night.
  • was caught up reading a real novel.
  • was caught up in politics.
  • didn't stop watching TV soon enough that night.
  • had a dog rope toy in my hand, slobber still dripping off of it as the dog had just dropped it there.
  • could more easily look at the clouds in the sky than at a blank piece of paper or a blank computer screen.
  • was going somewhere in a week and needed to get other stuff done (which oddly turned into watching TV late into the evening). (The observant reader, trained in spotting themes, might spot one of those by now.)
  • was interrupted by a phone call.
In short, momentum and motivation were infrequent friends in my quest as a not-writer. And when I actually would start to write, by page 80, say, I would throw up my hands (my dog would imitate this movement, because he knew it meant a trip to the yard to get fresh air), and say, “That's stupid! This would never happen. No one will believe it.” Then I would stop writing. In reality, the only person not believing the story was the not-writer writing it.

Which brings us to today. Or tonight, actually. I've lately written a lot more. Won a couple contests, received some nice feedback and encouragement. Even made some writing friends. But when it gets to putting that actual first book together...yeah. Yeah...but the good news is I think I am an almost-writer now. In honor of that promotion, I am going to give myself the rest of the night off and watch some TV. No sense pushing our luck with this.

2 Comments
Rolando link
1/29/2012 11:01:02

LOL, you are a writer Jotter, no doubt about that. But I didn't know that you modeled your conversations with your dog series on Boston Legal. Which one of you is Danny Crane? Let us know when you are getting ready to put that book out!

Reply
Joseph Aidan link
8/6/2012 13:33:55

Excellent! I admire all the helpful data you've shared in your articles. I'm looking forward for more helpful articles from you. :)

Joseph Aidan
www.arielmed.com

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I have been writing for a long time...but recently became serious about it due to Scribd, where I have over 1,200 followers and over 170,000 readings of over 100 pieces.  Links to some of those on the relevant pages on this site.

    Picture

    Archives

    October 2015
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011

    Categories

    All
    Alaa
    Announcement
    Artists
    Authors
    Books
    Book Stores
    Charles Olson
    Cigars With Dog
    Creation
    Creativity
    Denise Levertov
    Discovery
    Dog
    Duncan
    Ebook
    Egypt
    E Readers
    E-readers
    Fenelosa
    Genesis
    Ground Of Being
    Haiku
    Holidays
    Humor
    Insipiration
    Inspiration
    Interview
    Kings
    Knowing
    Levertov
    Lew Welch
    Library
    Memory
    Monday
    Myth
    Neighbors
    New Authors
    New Books
    New Poem
    Night
    Olson
    On Writing
    Origins
    Permission
    Philosophy
    Poetry
    Present
    Published In
    Quail Bell
    Reading
    Robert Duncan
    Searching For Meaning
    Seasons
    Short Story
    The Field
    The Word
    Time
    Wind
    Winter
    Writing
    Youth

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
✕