Ficlets

The Truth about Writing [When I Grow Up Challenge]

Ever since I was a little girl, I always knew I was meant to be a writer. I gleefully imagined my future – I would only write wearing my favorite red sweater, the lucky one that helped me get straight A’s on all my Spelling exams. I would lie in bed with my cat curled up around my arm, and write with a pencil long enough to reach the ceiling.

This was before I knew how to turn on a computer, much less how to type, and when I was still infatuated with the color red. This was when writing still seemed glamorous to me. The thought, that you could get paid and become famous to do something that was so easy! Stories flew from my fingertips like birds released from cages. So eager to spread their wings across the page.

Now I own a laptop and type all my writing … when I have the time. I no longer am infatuated with the color red, preferring black instead. I see writing now for what it truly is – it is hard work, work that demands discipline.

But the kid in me is still holding out for that extra long pencil.

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The Truth about Writing [When I Grow Up Challenge]
Ana Cristina
Posted 4 months ago

To give credit where credit is due, the line about me using a pencil long enough to reach the ceiling whilst lying in bed with my cat is from the great G.K. Chesteron. I couldn’t find the exact quote, but it was something to that effect. :p
The Truth about Writing [When I Grow Up Challenge]
THX 0477
Posted 4 months ago

It worked, the whole long pencil thing. Gave it all a sense of childhood whimsy clinging to life beneath the ill effects of growing up into an adult world. Writing is a serious thing, especially if you want to get paid for it! (just spent some time looking into getting an agent…complicated!)
The Truth about Writing [When I Grow Up Challenge]
thebetweenspace
Posted 4 months ago

Pretty much, what THX said. There’s a great difference between the whimsy dream of a child and the life of the adult trying to make it as a writer.
The Truth about Writing [When I Grow Up Challenge]
Mistress Elsha Hawk
Posted 4 months ago

a big difference, yet that child is still in there! :) Great job!
The Truth about Writing [When I Grow Up Challenge]
Eckhouse
Posted 4 months ago

Yes, but did you have a pencil holder in the shape of an even gianter pencil? Because that’s what cool kids like me had. I swear, it was really cool.
LoA
The Truth about Writing [When I Grow Up Challenge]
Saint Chuck
Posted 4 months ago

Love the whimiscal side to this. Great work…and keep dreaming :)
The Truth about Writing [When I Grow Up Challenge]
Jenunique
Posted 4 months ago

Love it! And the actual act of writing brings about a completely different sense of accomplishment still. Sometimes my hand just itches to sit down and write anything. The curls of cursive and staccato of print (especially with a fine tip ballpoint black ink pen that flows smoothly and evenly—yeah I am a bit picky.) Ah, the memories. ;)
The Truth about Writing [When I Grow Up Challenge]
Trann
Posted 4 months ago

Writing outside allows you the room to use a pencil that can reach the clouds! ;-) Great nostalgia here.