TMT: The Life of a Writer

THE MERCHANT’S TABLE // NO.1 // THE LIFE OF A WRITER

Perhaps you’ve seen the memes, including the “types of author emotions” and the “process of writing a book.” There’s a good one with Kermit saying, “I want to work on one story at a time,” and his Sith version saying, “Start writing another one.” Maybe you’ve even seen the numerous pie charts, where something along the lines of “sitting around staring off into the distance” occupies the highest percentage of space. There’s a lot of humor to be found in these posts, but they are also painfully true.

For example, if I were to make a pie chart dividing the actions of my time spent in front of the computer “working,” I would probably have a large slice set aside for “browsing my various social and web accounts while I reboot my mind.” Or, better yet, “looking for my daughter so I can distract myself with her cuteness – an undeniable reason to leave the computer!”

There’s also this thing we have with notebooks. I, for one, buy at least one every time I go to the dollar store. I especially love the pocket size books; I leave them everywhere. They work wonderfully when you have a story idea in some random location and need to quickly jot it down. Sometimes, I’ve just gotten sick of the way my current pad looks, and want to start using a fresh one. As a result, I have probably fifty or more notebooks in my house currently, none of which are full.

Writing can be physically exhausting. Your mind works and works, and it will drain you as much as a game of football. You’ll even drink as much Gatorade, and piss as much, too! That would make another sizable slice on my pie chart: bathroom breaks.

When you start working on a story, it’s hard to keep solely focused on it. You can love it and be excited about it, but if another attractive idea comes along, you’ll end up chasing it to some degree. WRITING IS NOT MONOGAMOUS. Hell, I have at least six novellas in the works right now, as well as a novel being fully rewritten, and I still write out a short story here and there at random! Honestly, I could do 2020 with a new release every fucking month if I wanted to (or had the energy to properly edit these things before the new year). As it is, I am planning on doing a novella release every other month of 2020, and I’m sure there will be other things to put out during the time as well (probably half a dozen Kindle Singles, for example).

There’s a book I started in 2013 that I have written four times (one of which went from start to finish completely), culminating in more than 2,000 pages, and you know what? It’s been shelved again, because it needs another complete rewrite. Some stories give you so much feverish excitement that you will take years to perfect them before finally providing a public life.

Seeing as the author memes are generally quite funny, I would love if you all would post some in the comments. Share your stories, your struggles, and your quirks!

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