![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/KitchenDoor.jpg\" "\\"KitchenDoor\\"")
A friend of mine dropped by this afternoon to return a book, and I was so happy to see her.\u00a0 She had her kids in the car, so we didn\u2019t talk long, but we caught up for a few minutes and when I walked her back out, I was able to see her little guy sleeping in his car seat and her daughter\u2019s sweet grin.<\/p>\n
She asked what I was up to, and I explained where I was with my latest project.\u00a0 She listened kindly for a moment and then she asked, \u201cDoes it feel like work?\u201d<\/p>\n
I know what she\u2019s asking.\u00a0 The short true answer is yes, it does, but it\u2019s work that I love, just as teaching was work I loved, with some great days and some awful ones.\u00a0 It\u2019s work in that it isn\u2019t easy, and the hours are long, and I get paid for it.<\/p>\n
The long true answer is no, I\u2019ve never had any work like this.\u00a0 This is sprawling, consuming activity unlike any other job I\u2019ve ever had.<\/p>\n
One difference is the clock.\u00a0 With teaching, I unlocked my classroom door by 7:05 each morning, and then the rush continued pretty much non-stop until 3:00 or 5:30, whenever I wrapped up at school.\u00a0 After dinner, I\u2019d put in a couple more hours of prep and grading, and on weekends, I graded more.\u00a0 Even when I was off my teacher clock, I felt a constant, low-grade, conscientious buzz of worry that I needed to get to my grading piles or figure out some support for a student who concerned me, so I was hardly ever able to truly let my work go.\u00a0 I tried to.\u00a0 I thought it would be healthier for me if I could, but by June each year, I was fairly burned out.<\/p>\n
Now, with writing, I\u2019m always doing it.\u00a0 I wake up thinking about my latest project, and if the ideas can\u2019t wait, I reach over for my laptop and get them down before I\u2019m out of bed.\u00a0 I mumble out dialogue in the shower, and bring the thesaurus to the breakfast table so I can keep thinking about titles.\u00a0 I settle into my spot on the library couch with my computer on my lap and revise.\u00a0 When I look up at the clock, it\u2019s 2:00, and I discover I forgot lunch.\u00a0 I forget dinner similarly until my husband comes home.\u00a0 In the evening, I write again, or if instead I watch something on TV with my family, I usually have my computer on my lap so I can write if the show gets too boring.\u00a0 I try to take weekends off because I suspect it would be healthier for me if I could, but when I\u2019m immersed, it hurts to stop writing, so I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Mainly, I\u2019m working on novels, but if I\u2019ve met my quota of first-draft pages for a day or revised as far as I can, I\u2019ll switch over to writing a tie-in short story, a blog, or an article. \u00a0Other than that, I might answer a set of interview questions, or catch up with email.\u00a0 At the edge of my writing is my related reading: I read novels that I\u2019ve been invited to blurb for, and others by fellow writers I\u2019ll meet on tour or on a panel.<\/p>\n
Deadlines?\u00a0 Yes, they add some pressure sometimes, but they\u2019re usually reasonable.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t writing a crazy business and aren\u2019t you anxious about the uncertainty of publishing?\u00a0 I\u2019m just not that anxious.\u00a0 I know I\u2019m doing the best I can with my writing, and I have faith that my agent will represent me well.\u00a0 If my writing doesn\u2019t work, it doesn\u2019t work, and I\u2019ll go look for another job, just as I would if I couldn\u2019t teach anymore.<\/p>\n
When I come back to my friend\u2019s question, I realize it has little to do with the hours I keep, or what I actually do, or how much I worry.\u00a0 My friend wants to know if writing full-time feels like work<\/em>.<\/p>\n No.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 Writing feels<\/em> like what I want to do all the time, even when it\u2019s driving me mad.\u00a0 It feels<\/em> like I\u2019m busy being myself.\u00a0 It feels<\/em> like what work ought to be.<\/p>\n Believe me, I’ve had work before, and I realize how lucky I am.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A friend of mine dropped by this afternoon to return a book, and I was so happy to see her.\u00a0 She had her kids in the car, so we didn\u2019t talk long, but we caught up for a few minutes and when I walked her back out, I was able to see her little guy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-2047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-writing-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2047"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2056,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047\/revisions\/2056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}