Hello? Can anyone hear me?

Hello? Can anyone hear me?

Have you ever wanted to be someone else?

I know that I am not burning up the blogging world, but I hope I am a little missed. I have been writing! Writing, writing, writing, and writing! To those who are addicted to this passion, thank you for understanding.

In fact, I just closed out of the file I am writing because I wanted to get these thoughts for my blog on paper. Not that I really wanted to leave the world of my latest character. I don’t mean to brag and if it sounds that way, forgive me. But I wish I was Ricka, this morning. She is my main character and where I have put her and what is happening in her world is so real to me that when I look up and see the tree standing out across from my apartment I have to come back to where I am.

But my mind and feelings are being woven in this woman’s life. And rightly so. We fictional writers cannot help but bring some of our own reflections into what we write. I do a lot of that, but also I take my characters to the places I wish I could go. So together, as I create them, I get to experience places, people and things that are not possible from my chair.

Speaking of which, it has something going wrong with it and not being handy with furniture repair I can’t seem to find what is making it tilt to the left. That’s another thought.

Maybe it is twisting from the salty sea air that surrounds it now and maybe the gulls have carried in to much sand on their wings or maybe . . . .  See I told you I get very involved in what I write. (I live in Ohio.)

And that brings a bit of sadness. If you are a writer reading this then again you will definitely understand. Although writing has been a therapeutic endeavor for me, helping to clear away the clutter in my mind on lonely days, it is far more than that. We, who write, do so because we want people to be transported to that place with us. To see, taste, smell, feel or get to know and love or hate our characters.

When I start a book I feel as if my room begins to fill up with these people and soon I have a cast of characters fast becoming familiar to me. Especially when I am writing in such a flow as I am right now, they become like friends.

After I finished the very first book I wrote, it took me days to stop missing the characters in it. I had spent so much time with them that it felt as though I had lost time with actual people. (I am rally not crazy.) You would have to love to write as much as I do to understand. And I think there are a great many out there who do love writing. In fact on the writing sites I frequently cruse, sometimes it is like stepping into an ant bed with one common goal. Everyone wants their books to be read.

And who can blame us. We spend an incredible amount of time alone doing this. It is a one man/woman sport I always say. Unless you co-write. Which I have done in the past, But it seemed I was the one doing most of the writing. I had more time on my hands.  Although, it was a lesson learned, I am still up for it if the right person came along.

But today, I am faced with the biggest problem I see over and over in all the blogging about writing.  I think everyone has something in their stories worthy of being read. And I think I can say I know what you all feel while you are writing your latest. “Will I be the only one who ever gets to read this?”

Putting in all the hours seems like child's play compared to what happens when the book is finished. What do I do with it? Where do I go now? How do I keep these characters I have lived with for months from dying so soon?

I marvel when I see someone post that their book is about to come out. From where? I personally thank God for self-publishing. At least my books have gotten a chance to breathe their own. They are not just figments of my imagination existing in my imagination only.

I wish I knew the key. If I did I’d open it for myself and for others like me who would give anything to find that fleeting enigma we long to follow into the thicket of the publishing world and have our books published and loved by the world.

Ah, sometimes I think that is the greatest fictional thing I write. I know it happens, I’ve seen people become overnight successes. One can only hope. But in the mean time, I’ll step back into the world of Ricka, where Gully the seagull flutters about her cottage porch overlooking the bayou. And Joshua, the impish little tanned boy might appear from over the sand dune bringing new worlds of wisdom from Great Mama.

A final thought; before reading my piece in the memoir class the other day, I asked a question. I asked if there was anyone who might be interested in being a test reader for me. Just to catch those occsssionally misspelleded words and for feed back.

The teacher without pause said, “I’ll do it.”

I nearly fell out of my chair! I said, “You will???????” I think I sounded as shocked as if she had just offered me a kidney. I ALMOST CRIED. 

I’ve never had anyone respond so quickly to that request. She can cross out every other word and it won’t bother me. Just her genuine care to be so willing is worth it.

(I knew she was my favorite teacher!)

I hope everyone writing today finds as much solace in the doing of it as I am, bless you all.