Thursday, October 25, 2012

No Turning Back...

That was the subject line of my e-mail to my best friend, (who I will refer to as "E," for now on), wherein I announced I was going to be a writer.  This was not the first time I have made a job announcement to her as I am a former lawyer, who was at one point thinking of going into teaching, but wound up as a stay-at-home mom trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.  Yeah, try making that resume!  Like I said, this is not my first time making a decision regarding, "what I want to be when I grow up," but this is the first time I would truly like it to work out.  So after deciding, I immediately announced it to E, so it would seem more "real."  She is my accountability person after all.

Her response was amazing.  Honestly, I have told two people, my husband and E, and both were like 'well yeah, sounds about right.'  It's like I'm the last to figure this out!  (On a side note, I am going to refer to my husband for now on as "The Commissioner."  I am doing this for several reasons.  Mostly, I just hate saying "my husband."  It just sounds funny to me.  Seriously, when we are out in public meeting people and he introduces me as his "wife," I want to start laughing.  So the best I can do is "The Commissioner."  This is fitting for us as we are currently obsessed with Fantasy Football and the television show "The League."  However, I'm not going to tell him this is his title as it will go straight to his head and I'll never hear the end of it.)

So back to my decision to be a writer.  Writers are often asked when they knew they wanted to be a writer and I am always impressed when they answer from the age of [insert some ridiculously young age.]  I decided to "be" a writer at age 34 after one too many glasses of wine.  More like, after one too many glasses of wine, I admitted to The Commissioner I had always wanted to be a writer, but never had the guts to try.  His response was what got me- he was 100 percent positive it was a good decision- that I could actually be a writer.

So I did what any rational person does after making a life altering decision during happy hour, nothing. After a few days of this, I was sick of listening to the doubts in my head and I took my next step.  I told him again, in a serious discussion.  It went something like, "remember when we were talking about how I wanted to be a writer?  Well I think I'm going to go ahead and actually do it."  And his response was something like, "okay, I thought we already discussed this?"

So one new laptop (hey, my old one died- don't judge), and a million nerves later, here I am, ready to be a writer.   Of course, as I mentioned, I am all about big ideas and not so much on execution.  So I am really hoping I stick with this, that it works out, if for no other reason than it would be awesome to see something I have written- even if I am the only one who sees it.

So here are the steps I've taken:

  1. Told The Commissioner;
  2. Admitted to myself (and to The Commissioner) I was not kidding;
  3. Told E (I need to be accountable to someone else); 
  4. Bought a new MacBook Pro (I love it so much I am practically cheating on The Commissioner); 
  5. Started using twitter again to stalk... I mean talk to a bunch of my favorite YA authors, book bloggers and other industry people;
  6. Signed up for NaNo (because as a procrastinator the idea of being challenged to write for 30 days may actually force me to write for 30 days);
  7. Start this blog (because if I am going to do something- might as well document my attempt so I can look back on this later.  Hopefully, with my book in hand.); and
  8. Publish this first entry... so there is truly no turning back.



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