Aspiring or Aspirations?

I am always looking for advice from well-established writers. One that I have heard over and over again is to stop using the phrase "aspiring writer." This is not an entirely new concept. During my college years in Nashville, I made some extra cash by acting in local commercials,  country music videos (it WAS Nashville, after all), and independent and student films. I even had an agent to represent me in my last year there. It was fun, and I met a lot of people, many of whom were "aspiring" somethings--actors, directors, singers. And that phrase always bothered me. After all, if you were DOING, then you were no longer aspiring. The title itself seems to suggest someone who isn't doing anything at all.

Therefore, if you write, you are a writer. You may not be a professional writer or a bestselling writer or even a prolific or talented writer, but you are a writer nonetheless. If you just think about writing, talk about writing, then you are an aspiring writer.  

And therein lies the rub, for me at least. 

It is so easy to talk about myself as a writer, but it is becoming increasingly more difficult to actually find the time and the energy to do it. That should be evident from the frightening length of time that I have let go between blog entries. Like most writers I know, I have to deal with the real world. I love the idea of sitting at my desk at home for uninterrupted stretches of time so that I can really explore my ideas while the money flows in. But that is not most writer's reality. I have a full-time job, a house to clean, dinners to cook, grocery shopping and laundry to catch up on, and a husband and a ten-week-old son to take care of. Sure, the ideas are flowing, but I'm lucky if I can find the scrap paper to jot them down on (forget actually remembering where I put the piece of paper with the "brilliant" idea on it). When can I find the time to write? (Even now, I am writing this because I am at the mechanics getting my car fixed while the baby is with his grandmother for the afternoon). 

I love to write--I just have to make it work. I write this now not as a complaint, but as a kind of manifesto, a reminder to myself that if I want to be a writer, I have to write. Period.

So, to all those other writers out there, I am fighting with you. Here is a reminder to not be aspiring writers. Aspire to make that novel a bestselling one. Aspire to be more talented, more prolific, more widely read. But don't aspire to write. Just write. Write when you get that free moment while waiting for your car's air-conditioner to be fixed. Write at four a.m. just after you put your son down after his feeding. Write in those stolen moments as well as the planned ones. Just write. 

Because that is what writers do.

The Hour Is Almost Here...

And, no, I don't mean Halloween (though I am also counting the hours to that favorite holiday).

It's almost time for NaNoWriMo!

Last year, I followed the progress of all those writers participating in National Novel Writing Month with a little trepidation and jealousy--kind of like a kid who stands on the edge of the playground watching the other kids but is too shy to join in on all the games.

This year, though, I am going to jump right in. For those who don't know, the goal is to write 50,000 words in the month of November. The project should be a new novel (nothing previously worked on), and it doesn't have to end at 50,000 words. Many writers continue with their project after the end of the month.

It's quite an undertaking, to be sure, but I think it is reachable. I wrote my first novel by setting a 2,000 word a day goal for myself, which seems close to what NaNoWriMo expects.

The goal of NaNoWriMo seems to go beyond the word count, though. The true goal just seems to be about getting serious about writing--to make it a habit, to develop a work ethic. But to have fun with it at the same time--to joyfully jump into writing without stressing over what makes a perfect sentence or the "just right" word. It's also about joining a community of writers, people who share my love for language, for writing, but who also share my phobias and fears about tackling "the great novel."

NaNoWriMo, above all, is about stopping the talk of "I'll write a novel...one day" and actually doing it.

And with that in mind....here I go!



Do I Need a Defense?

It feels good to finally be back on here again. I am appalled to see how long it's been since I last wrote a post. I blame a lot of things: a trip to Prague, a new job (full-time writing and editing!), and a baby that has decided to become a parasite in my body. Mostly, though, I think I have just been procrastinating, which isn't always a bad thing. Sometimes writing can benefit from a little break. I've finally been able to work out the sticky parts in my second novel. (My first novel is going well, by the way. I'm getting favorable responses from literary agents. Fingers crossed!)

But this is not my main point in this post.

I've noticed a trend in conversations lately. When I meet someone new, he or she always is curious to know a little about me (which is natural, I guess, in the "getting to know you" of new friendships). Talk will inevitably turn to my writing or what I like to do in my spare time, which then leads to my love of the horror genre.

Now, don't get me wrong. I like to talk horror with people. And I love to discuss the genre in a rather nerdy way (I blame too many years in grad school for that one). As a side note, for anyone looking for a good book on the subject, I highly recommend Jason Zinoman's Shock Value. I just finished it and can't say enough good things on the book. It deals with the rise of the horror movie in the 1970's. Great Stuff. I am also in the middle of reading (finally) Stephen King's Danse Macabre.

But this isn't the kind of thing most people want to talk about when they talk "horror" with me. No, they want to know why I like horror. I guess people don't expect a petite (and currently pregnant) blonde to like horror. What I should like...I don't know. Or what a "horror fan" should look like...that confuses me too. Whatever it is, I'm not it.

So, they want to know why I like it.

I used to give all sorts of reasons why I watched, ranging from the more academic ("horror tells us about our society" and "it allows us a safe place to experience our fears and anxieties") to the less so ("I enjoy movies with buckets of fake blood"). Now, though, I'm wondering if that is even needed.

After all, no one ever asks for a defense when someone professes a love for romantic comedies or comic-book movies ("Really? You watch romantic comedies? You don't look like that kind of person? Why? Have you liked them since you were a child?" It's a ridiculous thought). No one who likes comedic films ever has to defend his or her tastes (although I would point out that many comedies have more violence than a lot of horror movies I've watched--and horror movies generally have a good dose of funny to them too--but that's another post for another day).

Why, then, do I have to offer a reasoning behind my obsession?

I don't think I owe that to anyone. Next time someone asks me why I like horror, I'll just shrug and say, "Because I do."

And that's all the defense I need.