All change – I’m a writer!
Posted by Audrey Chin on June 15, 2013 · 9 Comments
“I’m a writer.”
Not a corporate steward who writes in her spare time, not a dilettante dabbling with words, not an empty-nester who needs to express in an amateur way … No, it’s time to put away those phrases that belittle my craft, indeed my mastery of that craft.
Yes, I am a writer. Plainly… Simply… Boldly… Paralyzingly… A writer!
I have no idea why the idea – no the reality – of this affirmation should frighten me so. Or perhaps I do…
There’s all that stuff lurking in the trash-heap of my sub-conscious:
There’s the memory of my mother digging around my little scraps of paper and wondering why I was going crazy. Or her mutterings that men didn’t like clever women. Or my daughter and husband telling me to be careful what I wrote. “Just in case, the authorities, you know…” they would say. There’s a fund of fund manager who asked me, “What’s that got to do with being good at investing?” when he got down to the very bottom of my resume and found out I’d been published.
It’s the sheer lack of congruence between being a writer and my various other known identities.
How do I explain being both a right-brained creative and a left-brained pillar of corporate responsibility? How do I reconcile being a decisive cut-loss-at-the right time quantitative hedge-fund manager and a fidgety poet playing with words?
And how can the sane wife and efficient mother that’s me explain all that sex and infidelity and bad language in her short stories?
“All for the sake of art,” I might say. Or, “Because the characters made me!” That sounds too much like one of the kids excuses about the dog eating the homework doesn’t it?
Of course, I could give a long explanation about how even the flawed are redeemed, and if I don’t show them flawed, then how can I portray redemption. I see the kid asking for his curfew to be rolled back then with that one. Arguing he should be given back those computer gaming hours I just lopped off last week for punishment. If my characters can be redeemed by love, why can’t I give him more slack?
I know, I know, I know … I should stop whinging right?
What’s done is done and I’m a writer whether I like it or not. Indeed, I’ve probably been a writer since before I was even a spark in my parents’ eyes. That isn’t a fate worse than death. Come November, there’ll be a novel coming out, and before that, a collection of short stories.
Time for celebration. Time to get on with the sequel to the novel or the prequel to something new entirely.
Yes! I’m a writer … ummmm among all my other identities …
How difficult has it been for you on your journey to being you? What did it feel like telling people that in addition to being A you were also B? Will you tell us about it please?
Filed under POSTS · Tagged with Arts, Books, Fiction, Lateralization of brain function, Online Writing, Paralyzed by fear, Short Stories, Short story, Writer
Reader and Writer - Praying Woman - Gardener - Foodie 
This post made me laugh! A great description of the many issues we go through as writers trying to explain ourselves to those who know us – or at least come into contact with us – most. 🙂
Well at least Thing 1 isn’t asking you to be careful about your writing! Envy envy.
Ah but Wifey does and Thing I does look at me with disapproval sometimes when I write something a little bit ‘scandalous’! She has no idea what’s being written out there!
Writers, housewives, artists – they all seem to get rather ambivalent responses in our modern world. I am a housewife who writes. Just imagine what people think I do all day long! 😀 So good for you Audrey to come out of the closet and about time too! 😀 Well done. Sharon
Feel nekkid!
Hahaha… What do you do all day long? Do you actually manage to sit down with chunks of hours to write or are you trying to put in sentences between dinner and the garbage? I’d love to hear.
I knew you were a writer the day I met you, well in cyberspace so to speak. The sky is not the limit, your talents extend beyond and I will enjoy watching succeed beautiful lady. Congratulations and have a champagne for me.
Of course you’re a writer! No one should be surprised to hear it. And you never have to make excuses for your characters, they are who they are. I’ve actually heard myself tell people that I am a writer several times recently and it still sounds kind of shocking coming out of my mouth, but I feel a little less weird every time I say it.
Thank you my trusty supporters. I guess you guys “met” me as a writer. What everyone else who knew me be before fears though, and conveys it quite loudly, is that writing somehow diminishes me as a wife, mother, corporate steward and investment manager. And these ARE roles that I also cherish. That’s the sticking point.