We Need to Talk

Sometimes, in the midst of the craziness, we learn things about ourselves . . . and others. It happened to me the other night.

I had been writing for several hours, churning out great material, work that, I knew, was some of the best writing I'd done in years. It was writing so astounding that any editor would swoon over it and write me a check on the spot. But it was approaching midnight, and my wife was also bringing her eighteen hour work day to a close.

"Hey," I yelled from my office, "we need talk. Are you going to finish that term paper you wanted me to read? I've got some time now."

Becky screamed back. "I know I need to write it, but I can't seem to get motivated," she said. "I'm not like you. I can't just plop down in a chair and crank out twenty pages a night."

"But you're a good writer," I hollered back. "Your term papers are always insightful."

"Listen," Becky said, "You're a writer. But I'm just a person who can write."

Bazinga! Wow, I'd never heard it said that way before, but the old lady is probably onto something here. Writers . . . and people who can write. That's a rather insightful distinction, I think. Most people can write (at least something, or some of the time) but not all people are writers.

In fact, I think it was Truman Capote who once remarked that writing could not be taught, and that writers were not made, but born. He made the bold assertion that writers were those whose essence, whose being, was centered in the production and constant outpouring of words on the page. He may have been onto something, too.

In the broadest definition of my life, I guess that's who I am. I can't recall a time since learning how to write, when I haven't been engaged in writing. Even as a "hobby writer" I've found that I out-write most full-time writers (those who are blessed with being able to write during the daylight hours when the sun is shining).

But who knows . . . some day I might be able join the ranks of these full-timers and actually be able to write ten, twelve, sixteen, even twenty hours a day . . . even if that's in retirement. And I know I'll be called a writer then.