Good morning, Facebook! You know, I normally start my day with all of the usual fitness talk. However, those that know me best know that fitness is a passion and a way of life for me but writing -- writing consumes my soul. Putting pen to paper for a first draft (I have never really fallen in love with the process of putting fingers to keyboard in order to engage in the task of purging my brain, heart, and soul of constantly churning thoughts and concepts that I live with. ) I am reminded once again how much I love this process. The magic that happens while Im watching my worlds, people, stories, ideas, traumas, horrors, redemption develop all with the swipe of that pen across beautifully crafted papers. I sift through notes that look like something a crazy person scrawled upon the walls and ceilings. I careen my way through well developed timelines and outlines and plot lines only to take my red pen and mark it all up again because Ive had my fourth epiphany today. Sure, too often I get caught up in one chapter or one scene or obsessive about one character. I do that. We all do that, we writer types. It is what we do. It is who we are. We sometimes have multiple irons in the fire because there are too many stories that need to be told and even if we lived a thousand lives we couldnt possibly tell them all and do them justice. (Surely I would run out of red pens by then. That Costco box only seems bottomless. I dont think its actually a renewable resource?) Eventually, I am required to transfer my works to edited, digital versions of their ink and paper parents. They still delight me but much as I derive no real thrill in reading e-books, I am a hardcover girl, I also dont get the same kind of rush when I finish and submit a digital copy of my work. Its just different. I miss the process of mailing off that heavy envelope. Yes, I know, Im a savage. Dead trees. Boo-hiss. Bad me. Etc. I am so glad I get to keep my originals. I keep them and cherish them. They remind me of where Ive been and where I have yet to go. I love the way they wear over time. I live for the way the pages feel and smell. It is the same way for me with real books. There is no soul in an e-book. It just doesnt do it for me. Theyre convenient but for a reader who really connects to the process of enjoying literature, who needs the tactile connections and feels strongly about all of it? No, a digital book will never qualify as a real book. Not when I can walk into my favorite reading room or used bookstore and buy a gloriously, gently used book thats more than 100 years old and come home, read it, take it in with so much personal excitement and joy. Book people. Thats what it comes down to, really. We are book people, not just readers or writers. We arent divided. Were book people.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 18:34:28 +0000
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