Things I don’t particularly like about being a writer:

• Marketing
• Publicity
• Talking to people, especially answering questions on the spot (Crotchety!)
• Not getting paid for long periods of work
• Tweeting
• Distractions (from working at home)
• Not being taken seriously
• Self doubt
• Snooty writers and snooty critics
• Needing a GRE or 12 conferences in Hawaii
• Editors, agents, and publishers (OK, not really, but I don’t like not being read)
• Poor royalties for little to no representation
• Longevity of each project
• Discouragement
• Being asked to write and edit everything (Does this really happen?)

Things I really like about being a writer:

• Sudden spurts of creativity
• Writing
• Reading back over the stuff and realizing it’s not all bad, and far from it
• Having people talk about characters like they are real people
• Reading about writing, or just plain reading
• The challenge
• The adventure
• Creating my own deadlines, job description, and projects
• Doing what I’m clearly built to do
• Design elements
• Working at home, or wherever
• People assuming I am as poor a writer as the next guy
• Taking one step at a time until I realize how far I’ve come
• Saying I’m a writer and making it be so
• Ruminating on story/brain-storming
• Having my daughter ask me to read my own stuff to her
• Being sassy
• Having a “cool” job
• The smell of a new book

Things I could take or leave:

• Blogging
• Editing and keying
• Computer stuff
• Book readings
• Being an entrepreneur
• The community
• Career day

Things I look forward to:

• My first check
• Making money doing what I love
• Travel
• Coming across a nice review or an admirirer
• Re-meeting old friends
• Financing my own career and my own projects
• Legitimacy
• Awards

Speaking of things I don’t like, I am often getting a (completely understandable) question: “What is your book about?” I only hate this because I am terrible at answering questions like that, and I often end my blundering by saying that’s why I WROTE the book, because I can’t TALK it. But let’s face it: I need a schtick if I want people to pick the darn thing up and read it. So let’s do this thing once and for all. By the time I blog next week, I will have a complete short and long version in answer to that question, which will also mean I have something I can use for online and book cover promotion. Sweet.