I Am A Writer

I am a writer. I mean, I really AM a writer! Are you familiar with that unexpected & unexplainable sense of thrill as the perfect words begin to pour our of your mind, heart and fingertips? I believe it is a unique writers thrill. Well, painters, poets & songwriters probably experience the same thing I suppose. It is a zone that you enter with no clue where you will end up or no idea even where you may want to go. But it happens again and again. It's not a fluke or accident that your result is beauty.

I can sit down to write something without a plan, but the inner need to write, or a need to write that has been assigned to me by someone else! Maybe that is the part that has made me realize that I really am a writer. I can write reasonably readable stuff even when I am not in the mood or especially passionate about the subject. That is something! Not every one can do that. At least, I don't think every one can do that.

There are two recent evidences of my new realization. I am now being paid a small sum to write articles for a website. The subject of the website is baby products. They sell baby gift baskets and wedding gift baskets etc. So you can send a beautifully wrapped & decorated gift online anywhere in the world. The theory is that the longer the business can keep a customer on their website, the better the chances are they will actually buy something.

I know that some professional writers very seriously look down on this type of writing. It is called web content writing and it is seen as a form of selling out for commercial means. For me, the key word there is "selling"!! At last I am being paid to use my skill of putting words together! Are graphic artists selling out when their designs are used in commercials or ads?

Here I am, a fifty-five year old woman who had her last baby twenty-three years ago! And I am being paid to write about baby care, baby showers and teething. I am doing this by research and memory of my mommy days. To stay relevant I have asked for input from the many young moms I know in my church and circle of friends. I am loving it! And I am getting paid! Because I am a writer.

The second evidence that I am a writer is a letter of transition I wrote & posted yesterday on my school website. You all know that I have been walking through a difficult shift in jobs and you have been so supportive and encouraging. I thank you bloggy friends for all your kind comments and understanding.

In my letter I say good-bye to my old job; directing a ministry school for 9 years and I welcome the new replacement school. It is important in this situation that my former students know that I am totally behind the new school even though it is actually a painful shift for Hubs & I. As I wrote the letter I entered that wonderful zone of being lost in getting the words clear and conveying what needed to be communicated. I did it and I did it well! Because I am a writer.

I have received so many wonderful comments on the letter, from my higher ups and from close friends who know the situation. My sister, whose shoulder I cried on, said that she could not read one tear between the lines. I am proud of me. I am a writer.

FRIDAY FOLLOW