It's My Turn

It’s My Turn

     I just spent the past month driving my daughter back and forth to her college campus so she could attend her classes. It was my honor to do so, and I utilized my waiting time to write an entire book. It was her suggestion. She told me, “Mommy, you’re so funny and such a people watcher. Write a Rom-Com. I know you don’t write fiction, but I know you can!”

      So, I did. And I must tell you, it was such delightful fun. I became so invested in the two main characters that they and their lives began to feel real to me. When I finished the first draft of the manuscript, it was her last day of classes. I had about twenty minutes left before her class ended, and I looked out the third-floor window at the quad and an environment I have known so well over the past four years.

     Starting this project, and the newness of the format, along with finishing the book on that particular day, felt like such a triumph of spirit. The gift of time and innovation. I began to think of it as my “Writer’s Retreat.” I also indulged in one of my favorite pastimes, people-watching. That activity is just perfect for fiction writing. It fueled my detail and descriptions even though nothing of what I saw, smelled, or heard is in that manuscript.

     I finally understood why writers escape. For me, it was so I could go deeper into my creative soul, stoke that creative fire, away from the household chores and other drudgery that pulls at me when I am at home writing. Ah, to have a cabin to retreat to would be sublime. But wait, perhaps that’s not true for me. Maybe I need a regular people-watching spot like an outdoor café. How can this self-professed introvert be so creatively inspired amid so much activity?

     I haven’t gotten far enough into this journey to have that answer, but I know it to be true. Or, maybe it’s only true if I am writing fiction? All my edits will take place at home, as her Four years are completed, come Sunday’s graduation. My Writer’s Retreat will no longer exist, even though the college will remain. Part of the “Retreat” was in the “waiting.”

     I have come up with several places within the manuscript with improved ideas for flow and funny. I wake up at night thinking about it, running the scenes through my mind like a movie. It is different for me when I write non-fiction. I genuinely love the two non-fiction manuscripts I have completed (one coming out May 2024, and I am shopping the other around for a publisher), and I have two more I am currently in the midst of writing. (I like to have many projects going, so as my monkey mind jumps around, I can attend to whatever fits that “jump.”)

     What are your creative pursuits? Tell me about them. Tell me your stories. Nothing is too “plain.” It’s all art. Thank you for reading, and thank you for listening.