I am taking a class in English Comp at Everett Community College and today, after doing an assignment that had to be posted on the class site, I had another student tell me that I wasn't really a writer if I hadn't make the NY best sellers list. she also went on to say that writers are lonely people and I didn't seem like one of those.
The writers of the world are connected into one group of likeminded people and this group is a community. We think alike and we have many of the same concerns. When writer’s block strikes almost all of those within this group understand exactly what the others are feeling. It is a wonderful resource in what can be a very lonely way to make a living.
I think that what holds the writing community together is the common thread that makes us all writers…the need to put down on paper or keyboard what it is we see or feel. Over the years I have come to realize that not everyone feels the need to do this and I was quite shocked to discover in my teen years that there are actually people out there who DON’T like to write at all…I was appalled. Our glue, if you will, is a drive to tell the story.
The life of a writer can be lonely and most people who do not share in the desire to tell the story don’t necessarily understand what makes us tick. Writers understand each other, we can understand the lonely nights at the keyboard, the irritation at the editor’s red pen and the need to drop what we are doing and find a pad and pencil. We don’t think that we are crazy, we understand the compulsion. Writers also like to read…a lot. And most importantly we understand why the story MUST be finished.
The biggest tension in the community of writers is ego. It is a double edged sword really. You have to have quite an ego in order to have the nerve to put your work out there but at the same time that same ego can take over your common sense and make you a bit paranoid. You can find yourself sitting in the dark one Saturday night wondering if an editor or even better, another writer, is looking to steal your story or even just your idea. Paranoia runs deep in our veins at times because, of course, our egos have told us that we are the best and as gullible as we are…we actually believe it.
I have been a writer since I was nine years old. I sold my first piece in a kid’s magazine. I remember asking the nice lady who paid me the $25 for the story I’d written if I was a writer now, she told me that if I cashed the check she’d just given me and paid for some candy with it and the owner of the store didn’t call the police on me to say I had stolen it…well…then I was a writer. I often tell people even today who ask me how I know I am a writer the same type of thing. I tell them that someone paid me for something I’d written and the lights were still on so I must be doing something right.
I have tasted the nasty flavor or deadlines, been paranoid about a piece of writing once it has been sent in and been the victim of an ego attack right before a book signing. Being a writer is a lonely road to travel most times with many a night sitting in the light of the computer screen tapping away hoping to God that what you’ve just spent four hours writing will actually make sense when I re-read it in the morning. I’m not alone though and I take great comfort in knowing that there are other people out there just like me….suffering too.
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