The Pure Joy of Writing

There are those moments when I throw up my hands and think or say, “I suck.” Or maybe, “Why did I have to be a writer?” Honestly, they don’t happen much anymore. Thank you, Universe.

In the past year and half or so, I have gone through a change as a writer – a huge one. I like to picture my self as a caterpillar previously – not unlike the loopy one in Alice in Wonderland – who underwent a transformation into a writing butterfly. Seriously. Here’s why.

For much of my life – and I’ve been writing since I was eleven – I’ve been completely consumed with writing something “worthwhile,” like The Great American Novel, for starters, or perhaps the screenplay that changed the way Hollywood makes movies. There’s hardly any stress involved in those ambitions (my tongue is stuck firmly in my cheek as I write these words).

I was gifted last year with a character, Lydia (Red) Talbot, who grabbed me by my shirtfront and took me for the ride of my life. She was so much fun to write that I lost myself in her story, often laughing out loud as I wrote about her crazy adventures. It was pure joy!

I’ve been struggling to get there again and had almost given up hope, when an idea came to me so freely and fully that I actually wrote the 60-page manuscript The Great Twitter Adventure – How 5 Tweeps Saved the World last weekend. I’ve been polishing it this week and plan on publishing it this weekend. When does that kind of writing ever come along?

It was literally stream of consciousness and luckily a fun story came bursting forth – full-blown like Athena from Zeus’ forehead. Okay, that’s a highbrow bit of analogy, I admit, but really – this was an incredible experience. Over 3 days, I only left my RV twice – once to take the garbage out and once to treat myself to a birthday dinner. Two hours, max. The rest of 72-hour period I was scribing my pea-picking heart out.

And it was again – pure joy. I laughed and smiled and was transported into the world of The Fearless Five (the gang of Twitter addicts in the book) and nary a worry in my own world. I was in The Zone, as Joe Montana used to say.

Thank goodness, I haven’t lost that feeling. I would have spent the rest of my life trying to get it back because I’ve never experienced anything like it. The ecstasy of writing, when it just flows, is as addictive as any drug. And it’s legal!