Writing and the Work Ethic

The Fake Family Reunion was, as always, wonderful. It was a smaller crowd this year. Usually we manage about 40-50. This year, with the variety of events that people had going on with their real families (go figure) we had about 25-30. But it was still great to see everyone. Friends came from as far away as Boston this time. We will probably carry on the tradition, regardless of the numbers. It is good for me, and makes it easier for me to bear Christmases, parent holidays, and the like. I have always said that I am lucky to have Bryon and his family, but especially at Christmas, I always wonder why Norman Rockwell failed me.

From the bottom of my heart, family of choice, thanks for spending a little time with me this weekend.

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And Wednesday it's back to Kirkwood. Which could be good because I could probably use a little more structure. Which could also be good, because you know, it will help me feel that I am doing something and I'm not frivolous. I'm sure that once I'm working 8-4 for the next few weeks while we wait for school to start, I will rue the reverse culture shock that kept me from relaxing. I will no doubt be complaining about my lack of free time soon. Stay tuned. That's just the kind of contrary whiner I am.

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I have finished Jerry Schechter's My Screenplay Can Beat Up Your Screenplay, and I"m about 1/3 of the way through Dan Decker's Anatomy of a Screenplay. Both books are teaching me a lot about structure that I can use in my own writing. Lou Anders did a very nice presentation featuring these books at Convergence (which I have yet to write up. I know, I know). I am finding them useful and Schechter's is especially entertaining. He's a very funny writer, worth reading even if you aren't interested in writing.

And...I haven't been writing much. I have been writing...some. The summer was not good for my writing. Mostly, I find I need time to write, and I haven't had it. Off work on June 13th, in Vietnam until June 29th, three days to plan for Convergence, Convergence and then finally two weeks to be home. All I wanted to do during these two weeks was get over jet lag, lingering bronchitis and reconnect with friends and the spousal unit. Worthwhile goals indeed.

Still, lesson learned again. Active social lives are hard to write through. And sometimes, you don't feel like writing. Which is okay for unagented me, with no deadline. I will say this: if I get a deadline, ever, I have gone to grad school, finished a thesis, and had a full time job all at the same time in the past. I can make those kinds of things happen, not through raw power, but through my amazing ability to plan and organize. It is a mutant power that is exploited by many. I can exploit my own mutant power. I think that it is legal. I like what Kelly McCullough does--figures out what he needs to do each day to make those deadlines. That I can do.

There's this idea that you should write through anything if you want to be a writer. Bronchitis, jet lag, a visit to your mother-in-law. It's all about priorities. Yes. It is. Mary Robinette Kowal wrote a piece a little while ago about how the problem with many writers was that they didn't treat their writing like a job. They treated it like a hobby.

I...I disagree that you have to treat writing like a job, especially if you have another job. Now, I emphatically do not mean that you can ignore deadlines when you have them. But my writing is not my job. I have worked very hard at trying to get deadlines and contracts, and when I get them, I'm all over them. I am very serious about these projects, but I really don't need two jobs.

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