A Writer's Life

Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love. ~George Bernard Shaw
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Sure we’re writers, but just exactly what is a Writer’s Life? Well, we wallow in words, make sense of sentences, hug our spellcheck when no one is looking, spew lies that we call “fiction”, spit out truths that we call “non-fiction”, we type until carpel tunnel syndrome sets in and we fill a page, or should I say pages and pages with...words!

When the computer is not churning, we’re at a loss as to what we’re supposed to be doing. “Was I supposed to clean the dishes again?” Confusion sets in when we’re not writing. We stand scratching our head in wonderment hoping something will come and make some sense out of the day, but we’re lost.

When the internet is not working, we’re stomping our feet, calling the ‘thing’ names so colorful we want to write them down real quick so we can give our antagonist a voice. Yes, we make our antagonists all the things we will never ever be or would ever say, out loud.

A writers life is not one of sit and spin, where we sit on our butts and spin restlessly in our swivel chairs. Wait, maybe our lives ARE of the sit-n-spin, we sit in our chairs and spin out stories, like spiders building the web of Shelob. (Shelob is Tolkiens spider creation!)

We’re creative, inspiring, smart, intelligent people who spins a web of words for other people to read. Some read, some get bored, some fan through the pages, while some get enthralled with our work.

Now the writers life becomes colored when we try out the publishing world. We then get accepted, rejected, booted, edited or tossed. We’re a tough bunch of people to endure such activity in our lives, by choice no less!

The writer’s life is also piled up with humility. We have to be of a humble nature because we are crawling on the ground begging for scraps of something, anything that the writing community can toss our way, and we feast on the tiny morsels as if we have struck a gold mine of inspiration, and always say, “Thank you kindly,” when someone has obliged us and done us a great service.

We have links to share, to help out the writer; we share other writers triumphs, as we muscle through our own meager triumphs. But I see every day that I wake up, get out of bed and face the day with a newness that only God allows, as a triumph in my writing life.

It isn’t all about writing and making money. Being a writer is a blessing that only other writers can understand and grasp. We are doing what we are called to do, and whatever fringe benefits come along, they are blessings! If none come along, it is still a blessing to be a writer!

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What I like in a good author is not what he says, but what he whispers. ~ Logan Pearsall Smith