A Day In A Life Of A (Crazy) Writer.
Of highs and sighs.
Being a writer for a day (or many days) is like riding an emotional roller coaster. There are highlights (rather few) with occasional delights (close to zero). Sometimes, all we want is that fluorescent light at the end of a mystical tunnel.
And please do not switch off THAT light.
Where should I start?
Ah. Let me start from the moment we struggle past the tyranny of our eye shit.
We may wake up with dread. Oh shit, I do not have anything to write today. We despair. And then Life finds a way. We wing it by writing about nothing to write about today.
Occasionally, we push the envelope further. We write how we feel when we are writing about nothing to write about. And then, we write a Medium Short-Form on top of that.
It pumps our story count to 3.
As if writing is not tough enough, trying searching for the RIGHT images on Unsplash. What a pain. Imagine searching for an image using the word pain. I get this as my top search.
I am definitely in pain now. How the f**k is this, pain?
It magnified mine by at least 50x.
Next, trying to search for an image using the word boring.
I got this.
Oh, come on. How can we equate sleeping to boring? Plus. Do monkeys actually sit around and sigh? Oh, come on!
And when we are having a bad day with multiple deadlines, the last thing we want is a string of traffic light underlines under our words when we do a Grammarly check. It adds fuel to the fire of annoyance.
And it is not (yet) a moment of jubilee when we hit the Big, Green Submit/Publish button. It is the beginning of self-deprecating mind-games our left brain plays with the right one.
It goes in stages, possibly something like this: -
- 5 minutes after hitting the button — Has it been published?
- 1 hour after hitting the button — Why is the story still in Draft?
- 2 hours after hitting the button — Why is it not published yet? What happened?
- 3 hours after hitting the button — Did the editor leave me a private note which I cannot view from my phone?
- 4 hours after hitting the button — Is it rejected? Why is rejected? Oh man, what happened?
All these hallucinations play out in our minds as we wait for our Harry Potter equivalent to pass through for publication. Yes, we get crazy before we become nuts.
Then the hype becomes a sigh when rejection is slapped on our cheek. You know what I mean if you are frequently slapped the label of REJECTED by editors.
This is when a little dry humor prevents us from jumping over the 30-storey concrete cliff.
- We LOVE your story! However, this is the 501st New Year Resolution Story for 2021. Try next year? [Damn You!]
- What a wonderful story! But we will pass. You see, our publication is about hope, and you are telling people it is okay to be embrace stupidity. [We Have To Accept Ourselves FOR WHO WE ARE?!]
- We have to reject your amazing story on Spiderman repeating his Graduation Year for the 8th time because … Peter Parker is standing beside me. [WHAT IN THE …]
- Hey, look. You are an amazing writer. But YOU~ CANNOT~ PASS~. You missed out too many Oxford Commas, man! [I hate beansprouts!]
I have been rejected so many times by so many publications for so many reasons on so many different days that I learned to laugh at myself.
Oh, and very often, I chuckle with a tear at the edge of my eye socket.
I warned you. We are a bunch of schizophrenic people trying to make a living with our words.
As if multiple rejections are not enough to flip the table and scream, I QUIT! … we bite the editors’ bullet and work on their suggestions … so we can hit the Big Green Submit/Publish button again.
Rinse, Wash, Repeat.
The cycle repeats until the initial story of Spiderman Repeating His Graduation Year For The 8th Year evolves to become Spiderman Obtained His Degree JUST UNDER 8 hours!
Gwen Stacey would have never believed this. She would have suspected Headline Analyzers.
And as if we are not upset enough that our brainchild evolved to become Wonder Woman with Spiderman’s Mask and Superman’s underwear, we go around telling everyone that this is our grand Masterpiece simply because … it got curated.
We are complicated.
And maybe duplicity is our game.
Sigh.
I think we are crazy. That said, I think we are nice people trying to make a living in this crazy world.
Post-Script.: Please do not ask me what the image right on top has to do with this story. I searched for images using the word Crazy and eggs appeared. I think that makes sense. Sort of. Sigh.
A Day In A Life Of A Crazy Life.
Aldric
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About the Author:
As a content contributor, I write my observations from daily life and my business exposure.
Because our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.
As a Consultant by training, I believe in making the complex simple.
Because simplicity adds value.
And with clarity — We grow.
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