I’ve been playing the ‘wannabe’ writer game for a long time. When I was in high school I had some notion to go to journalism school but I ended up studying physiology instead. I took exactly one humanities course in my three and half years in school. Then I ended up becoming a computer programmer which was about as far from writing as you can get. After moving up the career chain and ultimately becoming a manager and losing my technical chops I finally started taking a writing course or two. I loved it but I didn’t really do the work what with the full time job and the little kids and no husband and all. My most recent foray in the world of writing was to try NanoWriMo in 2003. I wrote 36,000 words in a month since I was laid off and had lots of time on my hands. I have yet to go back and read those words, fearing they are the worst drek produced in this area since God was a baby.

Now we have blogs, the great literary/journalistic frontier. Anybody can have a blog – it’s free! What keeps me from writing now is an utter lack of confidence. I’m no getupgrrl and I’m no Heather Armstrong and Lord knows I’m no Ayelet Waldman, the pro amongst us. Until I met her today I used to put off writing by hearing her voice in my head saying, “Kids, don’t try this at home!” and just like that! – I was off the hook. When I went into my mewling ‘I wish I were a writer’ routine what she actually said was, “Just write 1 page a day, just 300 words. At the end of the year you’ll have a novel.” Curses! Nothing like transmogrifying the devil on my left shoulder into the angel on my right. So do be an angel, dear and don’t nag me, – okay?

(307 words!)

ps – she is NOT fat.

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