I think I now know what I want to be when I grow up.... assuming of course that I do grow up. I want to be a writer. The problem is that I don't know what I want to write. Actually, I'm pretty sure what I want to write. I just don't know if anyone is interested in reading it. I could be wrong, but I am thinking that a writer without readers is fairly insignificant. After all, if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a noise???? I'm thinking it doesn't matter whether or not the writing is worth reading if no one actually reads it.
Thus, you see my conundrum. What do I write about? Do I just explore possibilities until I hit on a topic that gets a reaction? And where do I showcase these topics? This blog would seem to be an ideal location. But somehow, I think many of the people reading it might have a bias. I started "writing a book" a week after I was laid off but I haven't written anything on it in a couple of weeks. It was a little too much like what I have read from other authors. Plus I'm not sure how many people want to read my re-hashing of my early years. Honestly, I was having trouble staying interested and I was the one writing it.
So, do I write something loosely based on my life? If it is based on my life, I think it needs to be loosely based because after all, I'm going to need some artistic license to make it interesting to anyone other than possibly my niece and perhaps one of my nephews. I mean, once we get past the broken arm story even Rebecca and Chris will lose interest and quite frankly, parts of that story are fiction if the truth be known. Or do I just write a romantic thriller? After all, that is the sort of book I really enjoy reading. I'm sure that I am not the only one who enjoys reading them. Otherwise, they would stop publishing them and there would not be rows and rows at Barnes and Noble dedicated to the "Romance".
Another possibility is writing freelance articles for magazines. I think this would be the most exciting possibility of all. I think it would be so much fun to write several 1500 word essays each month and then see which one(s) I get paid for. I wrote one yesterday for a contest. I honestly think I spent less than two hours writing and then proofing it before sending it in. Maybe nothing comes of it. But words flowed so easily. I miss writing so much and it was almost a relief to be writing something that someone who reads, edits and critiques writing on a daily basis might actually read. I know that I need to work on my grammar. But I do believe that I have something to say and that someone may want to read it.
The real issue I suppose is whether or not magazines continue to exist in the future. Thank God they are now on e-readers. But as an avid e-reader consumer, I still cannot make myself download magazines. I still think that magazines need to be paper that you hold in your hands. Otherwise, how can you smell the cologne samples? Until they invent a "smell-a-reader", I'm out. My hope, if I do figure out a way to do this is that other people are willing to download magazines. I, personally, like browsing through the magazines at the check out stand at the grocery store and deciding on one based on whether or not the topics on the cover catch my attention. I'm not sure that you would get that through an e-reader. Maybe I feel this way just because I refuse to even look at them on an e-reader.
Do you remember on Married With Children, how Al Bundy was always reminiscing about the time he caught the winning catch in his high school football game? I think that is how I am with writing. And probably the people who have known me since high school are like.... Oh jeeze... here she goes again.... But in high school, I went to State in the UIL feature writing contest and I didn't know what a feature story was until 2 hours before my first contest. My English teacher, Mrs. Brown, just told me to think about the stories that Dave Ward at Channel 13 in Houston always told at the end of each newscast. That was all I needed. Then I just imagined him reading it. In my head if it didn't sound like Dave Ward was reading it, it wasn't good enough. I still do that. But now in my head, the now deceased Andy Rooney from 60 Minutes is reading it. Okay, I get that he was in his 90's when he died which could make him totally irrelevant to anyone under the age of say 60. But I can't help but believe that he is still relevant and that an article in that same style might still be relevant too.
I bought a book about 15 years ago on getting published in magazines and then never read it. Maybe I'll go see if I can find it. I am sure that it is in one of my bookcases upstairs. If I find it, I am thinking that steps one and two will be, actually write and submit something. Although, I have had no trouble writing anything in the last month or so, whether or not I think it is worth submitting is another story entirely.
I guess we'll see what happens. In the meantime, this blog is giving me an outlet that I never realized I needed before I began writing it. Even if only 2 or 3 people are reading it, it has given me something to look back at and critique my own work. I have over 700 hits on it now and I am pretty sure that I am about 650 of them. I read things I have written here a couple of times a day it seems like. When I read things I have written here, I many times find grammatical errors or things I would like to change. I must confess that I have on occasion, gone back and edited things a day or two after I posted them on the blog. So, if you are obsessed like me and you read it multiple times, you may find that an error or awkward wording that existed there on Tuesday might be missing on Wednesday. You're not seeing things. I'm just a flake.
I'm going to go get a few things done now. My friend Mary is coming over today to go to the pool with me. Yea! Also, GO DOUGLASS HIGH SCHOOL SOFTBALL!!!!!! REBECCA MEYERS ROCKS!!!!!!
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