Welcome to the 2018 Author Toolbox Blog Hop! It’s a monthly blog hop organized by the lovely Raimey Gallant aimed at helping authors discover all sorts of tools to help them be successful! Each month I’ll be sharing a different idea that has helped me or something new that I’ve just discovered that I’m trying out or maybe just a bit of writerly fun. To continue hopping through other great blogs in the monthly #AuthorToolboxBlogHop or to join, click here.
Five Types of Writers
One thing I’ve noticed as I’ve become part of the writing world is that there are all sorts of writers. These are some of the types I’ve come across during this journey. Which one are you? 🙂
The Jack Kerouac
I once worked with a guy who was this type. He fancied himself a writer. Yes, he fancied himself, and this was about as far as it got. To him, writing was a romantic image in his mind. He was Jack Kerouac and was going to pen the next great American novel, one which very few people would understand simply because it was so deep. I think when he “wrote”, he simply sat in a raggedy armchair with a beer or a scotch, and on his lap rested a tattered leather notebook that showed years of age and exactly zero minutes of use. He didn’t need an agent and wouldn’t be caught dead marketing or using social media. He was Jack Kerouac.
He quit his job and last I heard, he was living in the Dominican Republic. Hopefully he’s got his tattered notebook and beer bottle with him there, and he’s living out his dream.
The Tasmanian Devil
I’ve been introduced to this type of writer through social media. Participating in various writing chats, I’ve begun to see that there are writers who are #amwriting about 500 manuscripts at a time. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but that’s how incredible it seems to me. These people are working on at least three WIPs at a time. And in the midst of those, they’ll start one or two more. Once one is finished, they manage to write a novelette backstory about one of the characters by the next day. And if they’re publishing, they’ll release one book and not two months later, they’ll be working on the launch of a next book. There never seems to be an end to a project because the ends get lost in the next beginnings.
The Eeyore
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I only know a few of these, and boy do I just want to give them hugs. This is the writer who writes because of the sheer volume of sadness, heartbreak, and disappointment in his/her life; writing is therapy. This is the person who seems to draw on personal experience for every tragic tale and each gut-wrenching scene. I’d also throw the “I’ll never get published” person into this category. Believe me, I know rejection is difficult, and it’s easy to let the negative thoughts overtake you until you’ve created a nice life of tragedy for yourself.
The Cinderella-in-Waiting
I think we’ve all heard about how J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter ideas on napkins at a coffee shop while on welfare. And now she’s a multi-millionaire. Most of us probably know the real odds of this happening to us, but I’ve encountered some who are waiting (legitimately) for this to happen to them. The loud ones are either playing the trends or sending out queries declaring themselves the next big thing. The quieter ones are those at home hoping and wishing for this to happen. Either way, this writer is writing for fame.
The Snail
These are the people who have been writing the same manuscripts for as long as you’ve known them. You swore they were halfway through, but it turns out they’re just 10,000 words in. Or maybe it’s that they are on round 3 of edits, but it really feels like it should be more like round 10. The beauty is that this person doesn’t even seem bothered by this. There’s no rush and no timeline. For whatever reason (lack of time? lack of desire? perfectionism?), this WIP is just going on and on and on… And it’s a great mystery of life to this writer as well as others whether this manuscript will ever be finished.
Or Maybe…
You are just a regular person–one with a full-time job and other commitments–who just tries to find little pockets of time here and there to get in some writing because you love it and because a little part of you has a dream of being published. And you do have your Eeyore moments and a Cinderella dream now and then. And maybe you even have a couple ideas brewing simultaneously sometimes.
But overall, you’re just a girl or a boy, sitting in front of your computer, asking the ideas to come out in beautiful sentences.
Because you’re a writer.
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About Me
I am a YA writer and middle school teacher. I have a B.A. in English from UCLA and a Master’s degree in Educational Administration. I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and currently reside in Los Angeles, California, with my dog Mr. Darcy.
When I’m not living in fictional worlds inside my head, I run all sorts of distances, torture my body at CrossFit, and DVR entirely too many television shows. I dream of one day returning to the Midwest to live on a farm. Or perhaps owning a cookie delivery service.
My debut YA novel CHASING EVELINE released July 2017 from Pen Name Publishing. I’d love it if you’d check it out and add it to your Goodreads list! Watch the trailer on my homepage here!
