Hello Beautiful World!

I'm back! I'm sure you're all ecstatic about that. I know I am. Mostly.

I'm only not ecstatic because the trouble with vacations is that you have to come back from them. And, boy, was that a vacation I could live my whole life doing. Ah, for infinite money and time to pursue silly dreams.

Anyway, firmly back in the real world now, I have, of course, had a lot of time to think and plot and . . . do absolutely no writing whatsoever. That's right-- all my puffing about "uninterrupted time to write" equaled me not even once cracking open my laptop while we were gone. To be fair, I was busy enjoying NOT having anything to do (and too much to do) all at once, which I like to think is a fairly strong excuse. Ahem.

Now, inspiration is a whole different animal. I'm totally feeling inspired. So much so, in fact, that I got a new book idea (dangit!) that's all pretty and new, but I'm still loving the ones I have in progress, and therefore have written down all the notes I can on the new one for later.

It has occurred to me that I will be writing for the rest of my life, and I certainly hope it's a long one.

This blog post is going to be like the movie TITANIC, where the first part is all fluff and already long enough to be a story unto itself, but wait! There's still an epic disaster to get through!

I mean, an epic post! On to business:

I'm right near my one-year anniversary of this crazy blogging thing. A year and two months ago, I had the inkling that I really ought to have a blog. But why write one? What about me was special enough that someone else would want to read it? (And those of you who follow me, I thank you for your sacrifice in the face of my frequent inanity and commend you for answering that question for yourselves-- it's still a mystery to me).

More importantly, who did I think I was, trying to tell someone else how to write?

This is also a question I still don't have the answer to. In fact, it makes me nervous to talk about writing technique a.) because I'm not exactly a reliable source, being as-yet un-agented, un-published, un-pretty-much-anything validating my authority, and b.) everyone writes so DIFFERENTLY. Some people need or want to write by the rules. Others, like me, would shanghai the whole palace of them if given the chance.

I've managed to putter along for a year giving a mix of my opinion and gentle wit, and hoping that the readership I managed to attract would understand the difference. Luckily, for the most part, you have. But it always burns inside, any time I write a post about, well, writing technique, because I don't feel like I'm the one to be giving you these tips.

Except I realized something else. Writers write about writing. Authors write about authoring. Publishing professionals write about publishing.

If you look at the blogs of published authors, their blogs generally aren't full of writing technique. Maybe they used to be, but now they're full of editorial notes and book signings and new covers and release dates. They're full of the things an author and their readers find important.

If you look at the blogs of publishing professionals, specifically those dealing with un-pubbed writers, their blogs are full of what they and their readers find important, too-- how to make things tighter and smoother to the benefit of everyone.

And if you look at the blogs of writers, who lean on each other for support during the bad times and the good, their blogs, too, are full of what's important to all of us: writing. We are in the pits, figuring it out for ourselves, hanging on the edge of this wild train as it flings us round bend after bend, and we rely on the support of others like us to validate that maybe, just maybe, we can do this whole crazy thing after all.

Maybe, just maybe, we can turn into authors and the need to write about writing will ease and we will have covers and signings and dates to talk about, too.

Until then, I still vow to try and lecture as little as possible and talk about more things that are up my alley besides writing. You know, to keep you crazy cats around.

I'm waaaay waaaay behind catching up on blogs, by the way. I'll be working my way through the backlog this week but it's like trying to run up a stack of loose paper-- entertaining, but difficult to get to the top.

Do you write about writing for a different reason? Or not at all?