Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Meeting of the IWSG




Here we are! Gathered together for another meeting of the IWSG. ( go here and find others!) I hope everyone has their pen and notebooks ready. I'm at my wee desk in the laundry room. Yes, I am. I moved the huge honking ugly table out of our dining room lately because:

  1. I'm using my Galaxy pad thingy
  2. I'm working all the time
  3. It took up too much space
  4. I don't feel like a writer
There - can you feel more insecure than that? On the up side I still remember that Stephen King wrote quite a few stories and novels jammed into his laundry room so ...there!

My big insecurity this month? That I'll soon be getting my edit back from the writer who agreed to mentor me and I won't have time to absorb it and work on it. I guess I have to say that I've done the thing you shouldn't do when you want to be a full-time writer. It isn't that I took a job - we do have to eat and I'll never be Margaret Atwood - but that I took a job that I love and it's meaningful and absorbing. What if I call it a year of intensive research? Yes! 

I'm learning so much about the Innu and Inuit culture - the unbelievable hardships they continue to suffer at the hands of government and corporate greed as well as plain ignorance on the side of most even well-meaning white-folk. I'm learning about the hatefulness of our arrogance - how we think we know best when it comes to everything and ignore the rich culture of other peoples. So...

Also, I'm old. I really am. Sure I just got a bike and my adventurous heart is on fire most of the time but I simply can't do what I used to do. I can't do my day job and work all night on my passions. I must sleep. 

I promise to do the best I can and I also promise to quit wasting my time worrying about it. I'll be back to comment on my next process with Bright Angel but in the meantime I'll come and hang around you guys and cheer you on if you want it.

Now I have to pack my lunch and head out...





12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have a vivid mental picture here, Jan.. You know, I wrote my first novel at a desk that served as a 'wall' if you will between our living room and dining room. You can write anywhere, because it's your mind and fingers and eyes that do the work.

Jan Morrison said...

Thanks Margot! I learned this when I first lived with my fella and we shared the rec room - I got more writing done there than anywhere and it was much less than ideal. My major concern is my mind - it is so absorbed by what I'm up to at work! I was thinking the other day that I wrote a few drafts of a novel about four years ago that had as one of its main locations a reserve out west. I knew nothing. I seem destined to write about things and then live them! I guess I might go back to that work and see what I can do with it.

Joylene Nowell Butler said...

I'm old too, Jan. Sometimes I think about that, other times I don't. Get on that bike, and don't look back. You can do this! Happy IWSG.

Patricia Stoltey said...

Feeling old is not good! I've had a little of that lately and have decided to just get over it.

As for a place to write, I usually have a whole little room upstairs that's like my office. But when I broke this foot bone and couldn't get up there, I built a little office around my favorite chair and learned to deal with the laptop. If we want to write bad enough, we write.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry you're not feeling much like a writer at this moment. I'm sure it'll pass. It happens to us all.

My office still isn't completely set up, so I still use my lap on the sofa or my bed to write. Wishing you the very best. Eva, IWSG co-host

Madeline Mora-Summonte said...

Yeh for bike riding and an "adventurous heart that is on fire most of the time." :)

And I've always loved that factoid about King writing in the laundry room early on in his career.

Hart Johnson said...

I say yes-call it a year of research. The native culture stuff is WONDERFUL and the history fabulous. That is stuff that can totally make future books. I get though, the day job challenge. My day job has really sucked a lot of time from my writing since I entered an arena I am more invested in.

Kimberly said...

I know what you mean about not feeling like a writer - I've felt that way at times. I'm sure it will pass though. :)

Jan Morrison said...

Thanks all! It will pass (oh not the age thing - that is true and mostly doesn't bother me) - but I have always written and will again...

Elizabeth Mueller said...

Feeling like you're not a writer when you are one is tough! Don't let social norms define you. If you find your characters jumping to life as you write their story, you are a writer. If you get a thrill just by setting time aside to write, you are a writer. If you find your mind working out plots or ideas while you do the mundane, you are a writer. If you get a high connecting with other writers, you are a writer!!!!!


Be good to yourself because you are worth it! <3

♥.•*¨Elizabeth¨*•.♥

Liza said...

Yes, work can be a distraction. Broken computers can be a distraction also. Life brings all sorts of distractions. We just keep doing what we can do.

Karen Jones Gowen said...

I understand that don't feel like a writer thing. Even when I'm writing hours a day it seems like make believe. Wonder why that is?