So You Think You Can Write?

I don't know of any writer who hasn't found that others often come to him with their unrequited dreams to be a writer. Over the years, many people have told me they've always wanted to write a book. Some have an interesting life story, traveled, have undergone a spiritual transformation they'd like to share. All of them have stories "just itching to get out."

Their vision of what it is to be a writer is fanciful. The Limo. The fruit basket. The cover of Newsweek. Meeting with agents, being toasted by other authors, and getting a full hour on Charlie Rose. They see themselves in a room lined with books, meals are taken at Elaine's, they have time to read the NY Times each day, and every crossword puzzle is completed right after the cook makes them breakfast.
So you think you can write?
Imagine:
Some days the words coming like water from a stream. Other times you're stuck in a drought.

Going to your first critique group or workshop. Putting your page in front of a group, having them read it and listening to their responses.

Deciding later, that those critiquing might be right. Rewriting it ...again.

Submitting to journals, magazines, newspapers and being reminded that there are writers as good as you, better than you, with more connections who won't get the job either.

Working on your book for five years.

Researching. Calling people you don't know, traveling to find things out, listening and observing to gain a different perspective.

Receiving marked up pages. Learning to craft tighter prose by starting again.

Writing for free. Writing when no one else is paying attention.

The man or woman who tells the writer they've always wanted to be one says so with a sense of wistfulness. It's their dream, do you understand? But there are so many other things to do. What they can't see is the only difference between the writer and them is that the writer has taken risks, shelved their ego, learned to be generous and the other has not.... at least not yet.

And the writer genuinely hopes that this man or woman with the dream someday will. Because the writer doesn't like to remember how less full their life was until they day they started working word by word. The writer knows it keeps him going, knows the search, the hunt and the eventual capture of all the right words is a prize like no other.