My Journey to Become a Writer 05/02/2024 Post #123

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Anne Lamott said she keeps a tiny picture frame on her desk to give her a perspective on size. 

It made me start thinking of word count as the size of my canvas – if writing were a visual art.

A painter doesn’t pull strokes across the wall – well, maybe some do; but to sell a piece someplace else, everything ends up rather square or rectangular, for the most part.  You can tell there are parts of the scenery that aren’t there, and those may make the viewer curious about what’s been cut from view; but curiosity isn’t exhausting like overstimulation – including too many things is a killer to enjoyment.  At least that’s what I think.

Whew. That was a lot of words for one thought…

So, what will be my style?

And if I have an audiobook, what about my reading voice?  Will I allow myself to laugh?  I don’t think I’d be good at dead pan; but at the same time, I’m almost completely inaudible when I find something funny.  What would Audible’s standard of quality say to that?

Will we come to a point where people really aren’t even reading books?  Will the “save the tree” people say, “No, Jody Susan, you can’t print your book “About Trees”, because that’s bad for the forests?”  I’m not sure.  I do like to flip through pages better than scrolling on a screen; but mostly I like to shut my eyes and have somebody else read me a story.  That’s the way I’ve always been. So maybe audiobooks are the way to go, and even these blogposts should be put into a recorded post.  I’m not sure…

What Did I Accomplish Today to Be a Writer?

I did Day 123 of the 100 Words a Day Writing Challenge 2024 through L.A. Writers’ Lab.  

Research & Development I’m Doing to Improve My Writing & Business Strategy

Right now I’m in a stage where I am drawing back – a bit like a bow string. I think I’ve kept my goals and to do lists way too close for too long a time and need to pull back in order to get any kind of power to move forward. I’m also taking a look at other people’s websites and business structures to get an idea for how I want to do things.

It did make me smile that Anne Lamott doesn’t seem to have her own website – what a relief. Perhaps all the things you supposedly “have to do” to survive as an author aren’t actually necessary after all. I need to keep that in mind. Maybe the hoops people say writers have to jump through are actually the greatest hang ups…

That’s definitely something for me to consider.

Thanks for reading what I’m writing,

Jody Susan

99 days ago was my mom’s first birthday not to be here. As I look back at this post I’m reminded of the painfully frenetic pace I was trying to maintain. Hopefully I’ve settled in more: