Kerry Writes!

A Writer Without a Pen Is Like…

19 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment

by Kerry in Writing

…a writer. Period. I am so sick of being told that if I’m not writing, I’m not a writer. This Is. Not. True. Even marathoners have cross-training days, or rest days, or injuries, or just need a break for awhile. Once you run a marathon, you are forever a marathon runner. No one says, “Oh, but she only ran one marathon.” Nope. You get the title for keepsies. To go the apples-to-apples route, this is also true for almost any other artistic vocation. No one says, “So-and-so used to be an artist.” Nope. Even if you’ve never had a public showing, people will still call you an artist, if you’ve painted, or drawn, or sculpted something, at sometime in the past. Same with musicians.

Not so, writers. We are told (daily) that if we don’t write (daily) we’re not writers. I don’t buy that. My then-future-father-in-law (a reader, who also owned a bookstore around the corner from UC Berkeley for 35 years) once said he could tell I was a writer even though he’d never seen me write, because one is either a writer or they aren’t. I would add that there are lots of people out there who write every single damn day, but still aren’t writers. They’re trying to be, but they aren’t. Maybe some of them will get there eventually, maybe not. But whether I’m working on a book or not, I’m still a writer, and I always will be.

Here are some things I might be doing, while “not writing”:

1. Jelling.
    
   Before I can even start a book — before putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, even for a rough outline — my subconscious starts humming. I think about characters. I think about plot. I think about which characters work best with which plot. A lot of this happens in the background, while I’m working out, or cleaning house, or paying bills. It’s organic. It’s part of my process. But it isn’t “writing.”
    
2. Refilling the Well.
    
   Writers read. Or, at least we should. Can you become an Olympic swimmer if you’ve never experienced swimming? DUH. It’s not because we need to “write to the market,” or “check out the competition,” or because we “should” read the latest literary masterpiece to make ourselves “better” writers/readers/people. It’s because if you love good stories, you need good stories. Other people’s or your own. And once you’ve written a book, you’re like an empty sponge who needs more-more-more! Absorbing other stories, other voices, other genres replenishes me, as well as relaxing me and satisfying me. Part of the Cycle of the Writer’s Life. But not “writing.”
    
3. Taking Care of Myself.
    
   Runners, especially long distance ones, frequently get overuse stress injuries. Too much time doing just one thing will do that to you, whether it’s running, writing, or banging your head against a brick wall. Sometimes, those are physical injuries (I’ve been unable to run regularly myself for four months, due to a hip injury I got because that’s the ONLY exercise I was doing for, well, 2010). Sometimes, the injuries are intellectual or emotional. Either way, you have to stop sometimes. You have to breathe, air things out, take a break. Even if it’s for a week or a month or a year. It doesn’t mean I’m not a writer. It means I’m a smart writer, who knows how to cherish and nurture my writing muscles, so they don’t come back later to bite me in the ass from me punishing them unnecessarily/daily. So literally, “NOT WRITING” can be the best thing a writer does.
    
4. Taking Care of My Family.
    
   Priorities. If my family needs me, I’m there. I’ve quit three jobs in the last 12 years, because they weren’t flexible enough for me to be with my family as much as I need to be. That doesn’t make me a quitter. It just means I have my priorities, and I’m okay with that. I’m still a great employee, and a (possibly ) great writer. In that time, I’ve also completed five novels, and started/outlined a half-dozen more. And if you want to get technical, I actually wrote all of those in only the last six years, because until my son hit kindergarten, I had very little “me” leftover for anything beyond sleep and the occasional homecooked meal. So, yeah — still “not writing.” BFD. When the chaos settles, I’ll get back to it. Eventually.
    
5. Taking Care of the Business of Life.
    
   I shouldn’t have to even mention this one, but often, if you’re an organized, on-top-of-it kinda gal, you get criticized. Or overloaded with implied criticism, which can be worse. As in, “Oh, well, everyone knows creative types don’t clean their houses, or have neat desks, or do laundry. Their work is Too Important, and who cares about a clean house, anyway?” I do. Seriously. I work/create/live/breathe better if my house is clean. Especially if I also have pretty things hung on the walls, my clothes are neatly in my dresser, and the dishwasher is humming satisfactorily in the background. Also if my bills are paid, and no one is breathing down my neck, financially. That doesn’t mean I’m anal about it. (You should see the third dog we could create from all the black fur currently adorning our stairs.) But if some day I pick vacuuming over typing, so what? I’m not postponing. I’m not avoiding. I’m making myself more creative in the long-run. And probably jelling (see #1) while I’m doing it, so multitasking to boot! “Not writing” — 2 for the price of 1!
    
6. Cross-Training.
    
   And finally, as noted in a previous post, I create websites. Usually ones that match the theme or style or genre of my latest WIP. Even if I haven’t technically started said WIP. I might spend days or weeks tweaking the visuals of a blog, or creating the header graphic for a home page. Other writers might do similar things with magazine-and-glue collages. Does it mean we aren’t writers? Of course not. Does it mean we “should” stop the collaging at a certain point and “get to work”? OF COURSE NOT. That IS work, and it’s valuable, and it’s a way to improve our stories (or our ability to “run” the marathon that writing a novel is) by flexing different muscles, using other parts of our brains and even our bodies. Looking at magazines for pictures of hunky heroes, or, in my case, skulls and cuneiform maps of ancient Turkey, is “not writing.” But it is Just. As. Important.
    

So there you have it. I hope this post wasn’t too ranty for y’all. But I needed to say it. Now, I’m off to clean house. Or read a few more pages in the historical mystery I started last night, and haven’t wanted to put down since. Or maybe go to the pool for some focused, nothing-else-to-think-about time. After that, it’s errands and picking up the DD at school, and the chiropractor, and DS’s guitar lesson, and dinner-bedtime madness. Whew! I can’t wait to get all that WRITING done.