Okay, he didn’t say ‘blog’, but he would have if blogging had been the thing back in ’97. I didn’t look that date up, so if it’s wrong, oh well. As I said, this isn’t a mission statement; it’s a memo, rather a ranting to fellow authors.
I just realized—though my husband and kids have known for some time—I’m obsessed. There, I said it, and admission is the first step.
A friend of mine once said, “If you don’t like what you’re doing, ‘work’ is a four-letter word. Well, I love my job. My job is to write, which entails my favorite pastime, reading. If you’re an author, you should understand this. Yes, we write, but really, we write only about ten percent of the time. The other ninety percent of our time, we read; editing our own writing (requires reading), reading other authors’ works to keep our craft sharp (requires reading), researching characters (requires reading), learning how to become a better writer—reading blogs and books on writing (requires reading), and hey you’re reading this right now…probably for enjoyment because of my title.
So, why did this just occur to me? I’m glad you asked. Would you mind if I gave you a breakdown of my day to explain? Good.
At 7:00 a.m. I read a contract for an author friend, because it’s her first one, and she was nervous.
At 8:00 a.m., while working out at the gym, I read a submission packet for another friend, because it’s her first, and she was nervous.
Between 7:00 and 10:00, and while reading the above mentioned items, I read Twitter and Facebook statuses, chatted with friends, read and returned emails, all of which required writing and of course, a lot of reading.
Then, my day job is accepting side jobs of editing for other authors, so I spent a few hours—you got it—reading.
Now I remembered I had to write four blogs, which I’d been putting off. And of course, they required research. So there I was in the latter half of the afternoon—reading.
It’s now 8:00 p.m., so I sat down to play a little on Twitter—yes, I did that throughout the day too. I allow myself about ten minutes every hour or two. Some people take smoke breaks; I take Twitter breaks. Hey, I told you I was obsessed. Don’t sound so shocked.
Now it’s 9:00 p.m. And while my husband and child watch scary movies, I sit beside them on the couch and you guessed it—read. Now I’m reading for my friends, which of course I will review on Amazon after I finish.
Okay it’s 12:00 a.m. I should be sleeping...I’ve been up since 6:00 a.m. My kid walks into the room, all the lights are off accept my iPad light, and he jumps because he said I looked like a ghost. I don’t know why the light was off…I was too busy reading to turn it on when the family turned the TV off and went to bed.
Well, it’s now 12:30 a.m, I’ve finished my fun reading but I’m still not ready to stop. I’d finished my current WIP, Land of the Noonday Sun, the previous evening—okay this morning—at 1:00 a.m and sent it to my betas to read, so what’s a girl to do?
Did you guess read? Well, you guessed right. My next novel, Entangled Dreams, is not ready to edit, what am I thinking? I just sent off my current WIP! Couldn’t talk myself out of it. I stayed up until 4:00 a.m. reading my next novel that I’m not supposed to start working on until April.
You know how much I read...fourteen chapters…27,129 words!
Yeah, I’m obsessed! If you must know, I wrote this at 8:00 a.m. Sunday morning after going to bed at 4:00 a.m. Why? I already told you, I’m obsessed.
But if you actually read this ridiculous memo, you’re obsessed too! And that makes me feel better, so please tell me if you did.
P.S. Oh, and I couldn’t stand it…I had to know, so I looked it up and READ some more. Jerry Maguire came out in ’96, not ’97…I was close.
Now, off to read some More… #AmReading… ☺
Here's my new sign:
Thank you for stopping by my place and reading my
musings. Remember, these are just my opinions and shouldn’t be
taken too seriously. If you have questions, please feel free to leave
them in the comment section, and I promise you I will answer. If you’re
curious about what I write, please visit one of my author pages, where
you can read all about my novels and short stories. And hey, I’ll even
give you a free book just for stopping by.
Carmen
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Your friends are very nervous - they need to relax lol
ReplyDeleteLOL! Yeah, we all do, don't we? ;)
ReplyDeleteIt is relieving to know there are others similarly obsessed. I am unable to stay up that late, however. My solution is to get up at 4am and start from there. :)
ReplyDeleteLove this! And, yes, I can relate. It's always good to know we have company in our madness. :)
ReplyDeleteYes, it is! I've found so many author friends now, so I know I'm not alone. :)
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