Yes, I’m a writer. My mystery/suspense books (with a smidge of romance), Corporate Prince and The Toy Room, are published and already available at amazon.com or The Kindle Store. Writing is hard, and often lonely, work. I’ve been writing, in one way or another, all of my life. But I’m not going to blog about why writers write. It’s kind of like explaining why runners run, painters paint, gardeners garden… You get my point. We’re all “driven” in some direction, and, as a writer, I am truly driven to write. But, when I wrote non-fiction or news and worked against deadlines, I found it less satisfying, less fulfilling. Now that I’m writing fiction I’ve discovered a new enthusiasm for my work, and I know the reason why. I have a confession.
I’m not a destination or goal person. On the way to my goals I stray off the path regularly. I’m a lover of the journey and the process in everything I do, and that includes my writing. The finished product does not dominate my work satisfaction. When I’m done with a book or essay, it’s the people and events contributing to my story along the way that impact my life and reinforce my genuine joy of writing.
It’s no secret that women are frequently more focused on the journey. Men typically keep their eyes on the goal or destination and don’t, as the age-old saying goes, “stop to smell the flowers.” To prevent a gender war, I will point out that a good share of women live lives of rushing from project to project, activity to activity, meeting to meeting, and never stopping to deeply appreciate the people or places surrounding them. Likewise, I know many men, who stop along the way and permit themselves to be side-tracked by the journey and its wonders.
What causes people to ignore the journey?
You see, to the frustration of my family and friends, I’m the one who stops to “smell the flowers.” I smell them, sit in them, pick them, and if I don’t recognize them I Google them when I get home. When I go to a meeting and see a printed agenda I choke up, because I’m the one who bores my friends to pieces talking about the interesting people or things I saw along the way. When Fred and I plan a trip I choose two-lane, blue lines on the map far from the Interstate system while he maps the quickest, most efficient way to reach our goal. I’m famous for, what our children have always called, Mom’s “long cuts.” I often seek a different or new path to routine destinations, such as checking out another part of town (and frequently getting lost). I go out of my way to use a favorite bridge across the river where I can spot “tubers” and kayakers. I love passing a friend’s yard where roses are in full bloom, then grabbing my cell phone and calling her to applaud her hard work.
My third novel, Cocaine Campus, is a work in progress. My effort toward organized chaos finds my page of characters on the desk beside me, next to the carefully structured outline of the story. According to his book, On Writing, I attempt to write Stephen King’s suggested number of pages each week. Yes, I do have disciplines that define my goal. But it’s my journey to the book’s completion that nurtures and defines me, and you won’t find me sequestered alone in a quiet room with no windows. My work space is a sunroom where a wall of windows allows the outdoors to be my companion for the trip. Here I can change my route occasionally and move my laptop to the other side of my desk, to the couch, or to the deck. I can turn my desk at an angle so I face the windows to watch the birds when they come to the feeder in the morning. I monitor my flower garden on the deck, and George Strait, Willie Nelson, or Brad Paisley serenade me from my boom box to enhance my journey.
Do you have things to do, places to go, people to see, children to raise, careers to develop, meetings to convene, a trip to take, a job to find, money to save? Like me, do you have a book that begs to be written? We all have important goals to attain, destinations to reach. But, please, please don’t miss the journey! It’s the journey that makes us what and who we really are when we finally reach our goals.
Terri Clamons, author
Corporate Prince, ebook at synergEbooks, amazon, and The Kindle Store
Corporate Prince, ebook at synergEbooks, amazon, and The Kindle Store
The Toy Room, ebook and paperback at wingsepress and amazon, ebook at The Kindle Store
Visit my website at http://www.terriclamons.com
Well said! I have made several starts at writing a novel myself over the years and too often I get fixated on the goal of finishing it to the point where I feel overwhelmed and start to fear that I never will finish it. Which, in turn, often contributes to me losing interest in the story itself and thus never finishing. Kind of a self fulfilling prophecy, eh?
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