The Exciting Life of the Writer: One Sample Day

Hi, Internet! Been a while.



This is my first blog post in about four months. I blame publication/publicity burnout. When my third book, The Revisionists, came out at the end of September, I was writing a lot of online essays and interviews and other random things for many other Web sites. This took a while, plus, honestly, one only has so much to say about oneself. I ran out of enthusiasm for Facebook and tweets and blogs and whatnot. Burnout caused me to turn my back on the blog for a month, which became two, and then three, etc.



Ok. I'm back now. I even have a twitter feed, if y'all are interested: check out @mullenwrites.



(There have been some bloggable things of late, interviews and reviews, including a talk I gave on NPR that guest-stars a certain recently retired Georgia-based rock band, so I'll put those links up soon. Promise.)



I've decided to kickstart the blog because, though most days in a writer's life just aren't all that interesting to recap, yesterday qualifies. A lot of people ask me what it is I do, how I do it, when I do what, etc, and the answer is usually so dull I feel compelled to make things up. Oz didn't seem so powerful when people peered behind his curtain, after all. I don't want to pierce your illusions by telling you, "well, I sit in a chair and stare at a screen and daydream, and some of these daydreams cause my fingers to twitch, striking the keys, and then at 4:00 I have a thousand words, on a good day." It would be more fascinating if I also fought bulls or hunted rhinos like Hemingway, or something.



BUT, back to yesterday.



The day began with the aforementioned sitting/staring/daydreaming/typing. Working on some freelance assignments, as well as an original screenplay. I've dabbled in screenplays before but this is the first time I've tried an original idea that is extremely close to completion, so that's exciting. And it's fun to write in such a new form, in a very visual medium. No telling if it's any good, but we shall see.



Then I drove to Atlanta's KIPP Charter School as part of their Writing Tutors program. Writer-types like me are paired with 5th-7th graders, who are trying to write a 3-5 page historical fiction story. My 5th grade student is crafting a dazzling, riveting tale set at Jacob's Pharmacy, the birthplace of Coca-Cola in downtown Atlanta. I don't want to give much away, but I will mention that aliens are going to invade the Pharmacy during our young hero's school field trip, and the aliens (who hate Coke) will arrive in a space ship emblazoned with a Pepsi logo. I'm not making this up. Serious battling is going to go down. The "historical" aspect of this story might have been slightly lost on my student, who, when reminded of this requirement, decided maybe we could set it in the 1990s. He's going to write a draft this weekend. I'm dying to see it.



Oh, and I found out that his mother went to the Rhode Island high school that was rivals with my RI high school. Small world.



Then, after our hero (me) swiftly raced home to pick up one of his sons from school, and quickly started cooking a dinner he himself would not have time to eat, and his awesome and awe-inspiring wife arrived home with Son #2, I changed into slightly-more-presentable-attire-than usual and got back in my car (lots of driving here in Atlanta) to race to Midtown to attend a book club of attorneys who had just read my new book.



I've done a lot of book club visits, but only one for my new book, and that was with my mother-in-law and her friends. Never done one with all lawyers. I've done all-students, all-teachers, all-retirees, all-public-health-workers, and even all-inmates-of-a-women's-correctional-facility, but this would be something new. Last night's was held at The Lawyer's Club of Atlanta (I swiped a nice cocktail napkin), a snazzy space on the 38th floor of one of ATL's signature skyscrapers, though I can't remember its name. (It's the pointy reddish one.) The fact that one of The Revisionists' main characters is an attorney, and there's some legal intrigue in the book, made me wonder if they'd nail me for getting some key legal issue wrong.



Luckily, they didn't. Everyone was friendly, even the ones who admitted they hadn't read it yet but came because this was the first time an author had crashed their proceedings. I sat beside a judge. A few folks were wearing "I voted!" stickers with GA peaches. Occasional political remarks were made, but not too many. Debate broke out as to whether in fact my main character was a shizophrenic living in a created mental universe to hide from his difficult reality, leading to debate as to whether I myself as a writer am schitzophrenic, hiding in my invented fictional worlds (my verdict: maybe). The board room in which we met had a fabulous view of the city, but I sat with my back to it.



And then, to top things off, I had dinner with Jimi Hendrix. (!!!) His health wasn't very good -- he had an oxygen tank with tubes leading into his right nostril, which he tried to conceal with some interestingly placed dreadlocks. And he coughed a lot. Still, it was great to talk to him and hear his take on contemporary bands like The Black Keys.



Actually, I dreamt that last part. Honestly, I did. But I felt the need to include it here because, a few hours agao while I was in fact dreaming, I even thought to myself, "wow, this is so amazing, a day that included tutoring a middle schooler about a space/soda story and then meeting a book club of lawyers is now ending with dinner beside Jimi freakin' Hendrix -- I have GOT to put this in my blog." So I am. Even though it didn't actually happen.



There you have it, a day in the life. Today, however, looks to be less interesting. But I started by writing a blog post, and in fact am typing it right now, like literally now, and you're reading it. Thanks! But I should go to work now.



Even though I'm already here.

Go To Post