Telling The Exact Truth

I have been to the gym three days in a row and I have every intention of going again today.  It isn't something I feel dread about, nor is it something I feel I "should" do, it's something that is making me feel better.  I might only do 20 minutes on the elliptical machine today since I have a lot of gardening to do which is also physical work.  But I promised myself that if I was going to spend the money for a month of the gym which we can barely afford, I'll make sure it is money well spent.  The truth is that I have been enjoying it.  I have had the urge to do more exercise lately but every time I try to take a walk my body hurts too much.  The elliptical makes me feel like I'm running without my joints hurting.

I have been writing- fiction.  I still suck at it.  It is also taking up a lot of time that I could be using to do some other projects.  I have spent some time wondering how these mom authors with a litter of children pump out best selling novels.  Do they dispense with the cooking and cleaning?  Do they stay up until 3am writing and then get up at 7am to take care of the kids and husband?  I'm slightly resentful that this incredible new drive to write is coming to me right now.  Why not float for a while in a comfortable routine of manageable projects instead of adding something more to the table?

But I can't help it.  I'm expanding a great deal right now in my professional craft.  Which brings me to the question: can a writer call themselves professional if they haven't had anything published?  I have done some technical writing, but is my writing this blog, writing a possible book, is this all professional if no one is willing to publish it?  It's much more than a life long hobby.  But referring to it as my "calling" sounds insufferably lofty. 

I have over come one previous writing stumbling block which is how to make up a story using "what I know" without it being autobiographical.  I used to experience agonies over telling the exact truth.  So I couldn't take something I'd experienced in real life and then make shit up about it to fit it into a new context or attribute it to someone who isn't real.  Just couldn't do it.

Now I have come up with a story I'm really interested in telling about characters that are not taken directly from my life, but are (of course) inspired by it, but they truly aren't caricatures or simply copies of people I know with the names changed.  It's fascinating- the process of inventing people and giving them a world and a past, a possible future.

But the next hurdle is trying to actually write them into situations, action, dialog...I have confirmed that my strongest writing style is a kind of hybrid of poetry and prose where I speak in fractured sentences (which, in poetry, aren't considered fractured), strong language, rich and thick and all at once.  Telling a story in third person is a more delicate and light affair. 

I am practicing my skills.  Trying to build skill where I haven't got any.  I was thinking that I should write in the first person, in casual language which is something I'm good at doing, however, I don't think this story I have in my mind is best served by first person.

Is it likely that someday you will be telling people "I was reading her blog long before she wrote her best selling book!"?  Yeah, not likely.

For a complete change of subject: I think it's pretty dumb for a person named "Brooke" to name her daughter "Rain".  You can just think of them as the water feature family.

It is insanely beautiful here today.  It is supposed to shine bright for the next few days, then a little rain, then more sun!  This is what I love so much about where I live.  The landscape is lush and gorgeous from all the rain so that when the sun comes out it's a velvet world I live in with plants growing at incredible speeds.  I have so much gardening to do and cooking to do and here it is 11am already.  I am still in my pajamas, drinking my coffee, wanting to hunker down and write some story no one is ever going to read.

Another thing- does it interest anyone besides me that Stephanie Meyer is Mormon?

My friend Lisa E. wrote a knitting project which I've got up at Stitch and Boots and I'd love it if you'd check it out!