Career Writer

Savannah is a little over 6 pounds and I am a little less than 236 pounds. So far I have lost 6 pounds, which, considering the amount of cheating we have done with parties and stuff. I got to eat a bunch of the leftover cake from Sam’s that was served at Savannah’s baby shower. White cake with raspberry filling, mmmmm-hmm! Margaret is crazy about the whipped cream topping they have but I like the buttercream. Since it wasn’t for me I didn’t get to be picky. That didn’t stop me from enjoying it.

Margaret says the reason I still lost weight is that our overall lifestyle and eating habits have changed pretty dramatically.

I have noticed that I only write in here about every 3 or 4 days, sometimes more, sometimes less, but about every 3 days. I think part of it is that if I get an e-mail from someone I try to answer it point-for-point and if it is a long one, well that takes some time. Some times I find something interesting on someone else’s blog and read and re-read it, then comment on it and even occasionally e-mail the author.

I also have my own writing to do. I love to write and depending on whom you talk to some will say I do it well, others merely above average or worse. Writing is work, though. I type between 25 – 35 WPM and a typical 1,000 – 1,500 word blog entry can take me up to an hour to do. Part of my problem is that I also edit as I go along, which is really bad. I say something and then go back and say some more and then change it. I guess I need to be more spontaneous in blogging, and sometimes I am, like my entry for 2/17, but usually I try to think of something clever or interesting so you will not be wasting your time by coming here. Sometimes I feel as though I succeed and perhaps even excel, other times I know it must be a dud and you find yourself wondering what you are doing here and so do I.

Really, I don’t know where people find the time to do it. I guess you have to try to make time for it. Well, that’s fine on paper, but I already get up and do my e-stuff and I doubt I could get up any earlier and still go to bed first. There is so much noise and traffic through the house the rest of the day that it’s impossible to concentrate on anything serious. Now there is time when I am sitting in the car waiting for an hour and an a half at a time to knock out some writing, but nothing to write on.

Well, no kidding Sherlock Holmes, I have, in fact, heard of the instruments you refer to as pencil and paper. Pencil and paper, or in my case I prefer fountain pen and paper, are wonderful for some things. There is nothing like the scratch of nib on fresh clean page for poetry, but try writing a 3,500 – 4,000 word article or story that way, then transcribing it to the computer and formatting it. Even an “essay” like this takes much more than twice the time to do because I find myself changing this and editing that until it looks nothing at all like the piece of paper before me. I enjoy writing poetry but there’s no money in it, beside which, a well crafted poem can take hours and even days to complete only to have an editor say, “Sorry, I’m not going to use any of these.” Rejection is a real bummer when you have spent a lot of time on something. There is really not a lot of money in writing at all anyway, until you become established and recognized.

I will have to do something. The logical thing would be to give up writing, but try as I might, I can’t do that either. I have tried. And I am loathe to give up blogging, which I don’t do all the time anyway. I don’t want to give up reading my friends’ blogs because it is like reading an open e-mail to the world from them and I stay informed about their lives and whereabouts, not counting the friends I’ve made around the world that I never would have known otherwise. So, I guess I will just diddle-potz around until I actually finish something and send it in.

I should remember what the Good Book says, “Whatever you find to do, Do it heartily.”
*sighs*