Nobody Writes Again
By ice rivers
- 273 reads
I'm a nobody amongst many.
I write alone sometimes with a mask.
Nobody starts out trying to be a writer. They just begin writing and keep writing and then one day they notice that they've wrftten quite a bit, probably more than most. They keep writing and then somebody discovers what they are doing.
I remember one of my first notices vame when a colleague said "I admire your productivity."
He didn't mention anything about quality or art or imagination or skill. He envied my productivity which means I guess that I was writing more than he was writing although with less skill, imagination, quality or art.
Yeah I'm productive.
I write and write and write.
Then one day I figured that with all this horseshit in my barn, there must be a pony in here somewhere. I started sharing my writing. I came to the conclusion that writing needs reading.
Some people noticed.
Pretty sure they recognized my productivity but were pretty glad that they weren't doing it themselves. They had other more productive things to do with their time along with the talent and capability of getting those things done and maybe, just maybe I had a little too much time on my hands which I must have because when they were out doing whatever productive, capable things they were doing, I was sitting at a keyboard doing what I'm doing now.
Somebody who noticed what I did and what I was doing suggested that I put some of my stories together and "get published." I though that was a pretty good idea. I had no idea how to "get published' and wasn't that eager to find out. Remember, I'm a nobody who's not trying to a writer. I just write and write and write.
I don't even set out to write anymore.
I sit down at my keyboard and all of a sudden something like this happens.
And then BAM, I did it again.
Yet another product.
Now that I'm retired, I'm flirting with the idea of identifying myself as a "writer" when people ask me what I do. I explain that writing isn't what I set out to do but rather it's what I did and what I'm doing and if past is prologue will continue to do.
I've published two legitimate books just so I can say "I've written two books" when they ask me if I've written any books. I guess if you're a writer, you have had to write at least two books, one is not enough apparently.
Sometimes someone will ask what my books are about, I mean books have to be about something dont they? What's the plot. A book is all about plot, isn't it?
I tell them my writing is kinda autobiographical which most of them sort of dismiss as farts in a whirlpool because it's plain and obvious that I haven't done much in my life that's very noteworthy and I'm a legend in my own mind.
If they want to know more, I politely hand them a card which my daughter made for me so I could hand somebody something when they asked me what my books were about.
As for the actual writing in the books, it's something that I did and do.
I didn't set out to be a writer.
I'm a nobody.
- Log in to post comments
Comments
we're all nobodies here. Some
we're all nobodies here. Some more productiive nobodies than others.
- Log in to post comments
'What's it about?' What an
'What's it about?' What an exhausting question. I don't tell anybody about my writing except you lot and one of my daughters who happens to be studying English Lit. Being somebody would surely leave us all too tired to write anything.
- Log in to post comments
I'm an unproductive nobody at
I'm an unproductive nobody at the moment, so I think that if I struggle to be productive as a nobody, I'd get nowhere at all if I had to expend energy on being somebody. My kids like to tell people I'm a writer, because it sounds cooler than 'retired office worker', but my kids have never read a single word I've written, so I don't think their judgement can be relied on.
This made me smile, ice. And two books is a lot more than some of us nobodies have.
- Log in to post comments