There's that stereotype out there that we writers are a hard-drinkin' lot. This may not be completely true, but here are 10 occurrences that might tempt you to slurp from the nearest bottle.
10. You've written the same scene not twice but four times.
9. You've written three afternoons in the same day.
8. Your vegetarian character is tucking hungrily into a steak dinner.
7. You have six characters' names all starting with the same letter.
6. You're sure you've finished polishing your manuscript. Sure. Positively, absolutely sure. Then you see the phrase "this writing sucks, this writing sucks" mid-way down page 53.
5. No one told you writing takes time and discipline. It's like...a job.
4. Your happily-married pair of characters spend the entire book fighting.
3. You spent 2 hours at your laptop. You wrote 1 sentence worth keeping.
2. You're stare resentfully at the thick volumes lining your bookshelves as "How did they manage to do it?" blares in your head.
Remember...
1. Writing is like a marriage. There will be days (or weeks) when divorce seems like your best option. Power through. Or...have a drink.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elspeth Antonelli is an author and playwright. Her twelve murder mystery games and two plays are available through host-party.com. She has also contributed articles to the European writers' magazine "Elias". Her blog, "It's A Mystery," explores the writing process with a touch of humor. She is on Twitter as @elspethwrites.
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22 comments:
Love it! I've been trying not to drink, but this post makes me think about it. 7 a.m. isn't too early, is it? =)
Thanks for the humor!
-Miss GOP
www.thewritingapprentice.com
interesting thoughts
What a fun post. The title brought back a memory of writing with a good friend who thought a glass of wine might stimulate our creativity. What he forgot was that I was the exhausted mother of five young children and a glass of wine made me fall asleep. So I let Craig drink the wine and stimulate his creativity and I stuck to coffee during our evening writing sessions.
That's the way I used to think about writing when I got paid for it in the corporate world ... now that I do it for free, I'm more interested in eating than drinking.
Great fun! Writing and drinking somehow have a strong connection.
Your post brings to mind a writing group I belong to that gets together once a month at an Italian restaurant for dinner and (mostly) wine.
We talk about writing, our families, and whatever comes to mind, but mostly it's about writing. Each get together begins with a toast to our group's name "in vino veritas"--in wine there is truth. We call ourselves the IV writers for short, and it is such a relaxing evening that I look forward to talking freely among writing friends.
Donna V.
LOL! Brilliant!
Absolutely hilarious. And (sadly) so very true!
Miss Good; Remember it's 5 o'clock in the evening somewhere in the world...
dissertation writing; Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment! I appreciate it.
Maryann; Thanks for sharing that story! I remember when my kids were little - it is exhausting.
Christopher; I understand your sentiments. Eating is excellent.
irishoma; I want to be a member of your group!
Deb; Thanks so much.
Sue-Ellen; Thank you.
Substitute chocolate for drinking, and you got me :)
#7 - I'm naming characters now. And renaming. It's been ongoing for days. Not one of them knows who they are anymore. I don't know my own name either.
Sarah; Whatever works!
Carol; I've been there. Confusing, isn't it? I suggest a drink to calm your nerves.
Wow! Does this mean I can add Happy Hour to my hectic schedule?
Anything called Happy Hour has to be a good thing, don't you think?
*sigh* Number 3. Oh, number 3. *hangs head and reaches for cocktail glass*
*sigh* I hear you. It's a #3 kinda day for me too.
I'm editing this month and I laughed over your No.8. I saw these moments in my ms!
Chemical Fusion
Power through or have a drink--so true! There are days when that wine bottle calls me earlier than necessary, but I'm still sitting in my chair BICHOK ready to write every day.
And revise. Don't forget that... that would cause many a writer to hit the bottle.
And file R letters. Yeah, that is a wine and chocolate day...
:-)
Great!! Love it! Maybe chocolate and a good Port wine! :)
This is so good! Now where did that glass go? ; )
So true, but at least we can laugh about it... Or maybe it's the drinking that's causing the laughter.
some great lines in this piece. Love the one about the happy couple spending the whole book fighting. good stuff
I've only recently began to be a "serious" writer. (as if!) And I'm finding lists like these more and more true, and hilarious. My sangria bender makes all the more sense, now. Thanks!
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