I have been in workshops with writers I love and admire and heard them tell of waking up at ungodly hours to crank out a chapter or two BEFORE work! What? Or burning the midnight oil to do the same. Not! I would leave these sessions calling my own commitment into question. Truth be told, some days it's all I can do to wake up when the alarm goes off at 4:30, stumble out the door get to work by 7, work for 9 hours, stumble back into the house and try to fit in some things before I fall into bed to do it all over again... Days go by when my pen never touches the paper or my fingers don't touch the keys. Does that mean writing is not important to me? That I am less than dedicated? That I am less of a writer somehow? Because I am not writing at a set time every single day does that necessarily make me less committed to completing my work? For those who would say "yes," I have to disagree.
Yes, writers write, but it may look different for you than it does for me. I may get a chorus to a song while stuck in traffic on the way to or from work and jot it down in black eyeliner onto a crumpled envelope. The idea for a scene in the novel I've been working on may come to me when I'm brushing my teeth and I pause to write it down. My method is not the most organized for sure. There is no apparent rhyme or reason, but it works for me... for now anyway. As I remain open to those idea moments the ideas continue to come. As I piece them together the tapestry they weave is a thing of beauty; a story that I allowed to flow through the available spaces in my life. I am so OK with that.
So yes, writers write, but the process is as individual as the writer himself/herself. My friend A writes to music, T prefers quiet, while I tune out the noise around me and write anywhere. The end product is the same - a beautiful piece of writing. Writers write indeed!
