Thursday, April 29, 2010

To be a REAL Writer You Have to...

Get up in the wee hours of the morning to write. True or false?

I had high hopes when I promised my good friend and fellow writer Melissa that I would get up at 5 in the morning to write. The first time the alarm went off, I actually got out of bed, put my robe on, and made it to the top of the stairs. I looked down into the pitch-black cavern that is our downstairs at such an early hour. I turned around, stumbled back to our bedroom, and crawled back under the warm, welcoming covers. I'm no spelunker.

The next day, when the alarm went off, I didn't even get out of bed. There are plenty of other hours in the day; why do I have to write in the wee ones?

The problem is that those early morning hours are special. I can focus on what truly matters when I can be sure that no one will interupt. I can get lost in Lloyd's story, weave details, get at the emotions my characters are feeling. All the particulars that make up my life --are school lunches packed? did I rsvp for that party? -- they don't intrude so early in the morning. You may wonder how I know. Well, I've woken up a time or two at 5 a.m. with the drive, the need, to write, and it was very satisfying. So don't give up on me, Melissa. Maybe I'll become a spelunker after all.

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