A Writer's Work is Never Done - Article

What exactly is a writer?  As the months have passed by, I have found myself asking that question and having to defend writing as a practical job.  I've found that writers are researchers, artists, interior decorators, counselors and infinite other things.

Check out the full article from Mary Novaria about what authors actually occupy their "free-time" with.

My Friends Think I Don't Work Because I'm a Writer

"You're not working, so you probably have time to..."

"Of course I'll do it," I said.

We are always writing in our minds and hearts and souls. We agonize for hours trying to get one sentence perfect. We research. We edit. We rewrite. We pitch. We polish. We rewrite some more. We recall entire conversations from ten years ago and fragments of yesterday's dialog to use in our stories.

We go hiking, and we compose paragraphs and plot next chapters... While we're stuck in traffic, we rethink the last few pages we've written. 

In the waiting room at the dentist, we pay attention to how people cross their legs, bite their lips and hold their purses; we notice the tone they take when speaking to children. 

Even when we procrastinate, we are working, because we are so consciously aware of the fact that we are NOT producing in that moment but we're thinking about WHAT we're going to say when we actually do sit down at the computer. We can't even read for the sheer pleasure of it. Everything is a dissection.

And as we try to calm our brains enough to sleep at night we remember a forgotten detail and fumble in the dark for a pen or the notes app on our iPhone, jotting down some gem that, honestly, might not seem so noteworthy in the morning.

No, I don't punch a time clock, work on the assembly line or have a corner office. I may have the flexibility to run you to the airport, take my mother to the doctor, or babysit my sister's kid, but it's not because I don't work. 

If you don't think writing is work, why not take a week off your job and see how many words you crank out... find out what the process feels like. Then tell me I don't work.

As we try to calm our brains enough to sleep at night we remember a forgotten detail and fumble in the dark for a pen...