Love and Writing

If I had another degree, in addition to my English and Journalism degrees – if I had, say, a sciencey-type of degree, and I was looking for an interesting research topic, I would hunt down writers in the throes of a project, and I would also hunt down couples in the first fresh, over-the-moon phases of love, and I would compare their brains.

And I bet they’d be similar.

I’ve written (wait, quick word count check) 33,500 words in less than ten days. And in those ten days I also fed, clothed and got my children to school, attended a Remembrance Day Assembly, supervised a school field trip, presented a writing workshop, wrote two resumes, and hosted a friend in town from Washington DC for the weekend. I even made it to my Stretch class. In other words, when I have been writing the words have been POURING out of me.

I’m in love. I’m in glorious love with this manuscript right now. I want to be with it all the time. When I’m not with it, I’m thinking of it. My physical state mirrors it. If my protagonist is worried, my stomach stays clenched until I can write her out of her worry. When she’s happy, I sing, I smile all the time. I get up from my desk to see snowflakes, and think the world has never been so beautiful.

I know this state can’t last long. I know it’s fleeting, and precious. I want to make the most of it while it lasts. I figure I’ve got at least another 15,000 words to go before I can send it back to my editor.

Which is why I can’t write anything more in this blog post, right now. I want to get back to Scrivener. But I want to be able to look back on the days when I’m not as inspired, or I’m not as captivated, and remember what it’s like to be in love with my work.

So that’s what this post is for. To emphasize the love of writing.

Today, I love my writing!