On The Craft

I just found some old term papers from my college days (magna cum laude June 2007) not really that far gone, though it seems like a lifetime.  As I scanned through them, I thought, “Wow, I’m a genius, and an excellent writer!”  I should probably tack “modest” on the end just for good measure.  It was a gentle reminder that, yes, I should probably go back to school and of how much I truly like to write. My mom always used to say to us, “Foolish names and foolish faces always appear in foolish places.” This was her adage to remind us not to write our names where they didn’t belong; on bathroom walls particularly. She was very much against that. I had such a fear of appearing foolish that to this day, I have never scrawled my John Hancock anywhere it wasn’t allowed.  Some writers say that if they didn’t write everyday, they would die, Stephen King, I think in his book, “On Writing” was one, but I wouldn’t swear to that reference. While I love it, I have never felt that way. For me writing was less about the action, and more about having something to say.  I don’t like to write if I am not inspired, motivated, happy, or mad…..well you get the idea. I would say that I am a writer who must have a purpose. Less of a purist and more of a task oriented person, I suppose.  But that’s how it flows for me. I love a good, looming deadline.

Oh, and the surgery was a success. Now 6 weeks of radiation and I’ll be on to the rest of my exciting life.  Laters.