Okay, so we all know I’m an author – those who read my blog will anyhow. Some of you may have even heard of the “I’m an Author!” badge I say I wear. Yes the home-made one that’s got glitter that makes it look so official. 😉
But how do I really know I’m a writer? Not so much an author, as that’s just the icing on the cake, but a writer. That tormented soul that struggled so hard to actually write something long enough, decent enough and strong enough to be published and therefore transformed the little caterpillar writer into that beautiful butterfly of an author. Yeah, I can assure you my actual real writing isn’t that terrible. Just remember that until they create an internationally recognised sarcasm font that pretty much everything I write is sarcastic. I find warning people like that helps.
The proof I’m a writer came to me last night. See, I’ve just commenced a new job contract as an IT nerd type person for a great new place. What I’ve basically done there in my first week, besides the usual reading of essential induction documents and training papers, is write!
Yes it’s been SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) or WI (Work Instructions) that I was asked to read and ended up attacking with my professional eye and lovely new red pen. But it was still writing to me. I revelled in it, thrilled in it and got quite excited over exactly how much work there was that needed doing and trying to figure out how to get them to let me do it. It wasn’t exactly what I was hired for, but still did my little happy dance when given the nod to hack into it!
No, that’s not the proof I’m a writer. That’s just the proof that I breathe and exist, therefore I write. To me, what nailed down the lid on the coffin of doubt, was the fact I would come home after spending thirty eight hours of my week writing – to want to write some more!
However, I will freely admit that technical document writing is far different from fiction writing. For one thing, doco work is best when short, sharp and shiny with lots of useful pictures for those readers who want to get it done without having to do any real reading… While fiction writing, to me anyhow, is long and wordy works – always pushing to see if I can crack that one hundred thousand word count – and the only picture you’ll get out of me is the one on the cover. And thankfully that’s been done by a professional artist and, well, not me!
What gave away that I needed to come home and write fiction was the sarcasm slowly dripping into the Standard Operating Procedure I happened to be working on come Friday afternoon. Yes, I even had to leave notes in it for my boss to try and ignore the sarcasm as it would be smoothed out before publication. Hmmm, perhaps I should change my motto to – ‘I breathe and exist, therefore I must write sarcastically.’ What do you think?
And don’t think I write and must always write because I have no life. Have you not been paying attention to the fact I have those hordes, hubby and menagerie? All week I’d spend an hour and a half getting to work, eight hours there and then another hour to get home. Once landed, there was a good two and a half hours of Haus Frauing and Horde wrangling to accomplish before I was able to collapse on the couch, draw the laptop towards me and… write some more. Okay, well yeah. Perhaps that’s not having a fun life but it still meant I had more things to be doing with my time.
All in all I strongly feel I have proven I’m a writer. Yes it does sound cheesy when I tell people ‘I write, therefore I am’ but it’s true! Who needs a hobby when an obsession is so much easier to rub along with?
Oh, and a final note to all this is something my eldest came up with the other day. ‘Mummy’ she said, ‘When you sell one of your books, is that like getting Brownie Points?’
Yes my love, to me it certainly is. 😀
Until next time,
Janis. XXOO
Janis Hill 