Broken Dreams And Lazy People

"You're crazy."

That's point-blank what my girlfriend told me when I first told her I wanted to be a writer.

"I don't want you sitting in some cheesy coffee shop all day, typing away on your laptop," she said. "Those places are full of broken dreams and lazy people who spend way too much on a cup of coffee. Besides, you're a grown-ass man, not some entitled, over-aged millennial living in his mom's basement."

In a way, she was kinda right.

I mean, I did have a pretty decent gig as a startup founder. I think that she thought she'd eventually get to be a trophy wife and didn't want me to upset the gravy train.

But I digress...

So lemme ask you, Mister or Miss reader...is it really that crazy to think about spending hours at home (or in a coffee shop), alone with just your thoughts and a typewriter as a means to make a living?

Some of the most famous writers are great examples of people who have lived this lifestyle. I bet at this very moment you've got images of Papa Hemingway, Bukowski, or maybe even Edgar Allen Poe dancing through your noggin' right about now.

Writers who did things on their terms.

And on some levels, writers who were a wee bit nuts.

It's not like they've had it easy: loneliness, failure, and rejection were constants in their lives.

And yet, I can't think of anyone who's had to work harder than they did. But that doesn't mean it was without reward and success, too. Both are part-and-parcel for the makings of any writer worth their salt--whether those rewards be materialistic fame or personal fulfillment at having done something well with a lifetime spent in service of the written word.

Service of the written word.

I kinda like that.

This brings me back to one of my original questions about whether a writer has to be crazy to become a writer?

I would say no.

But that doesn't mean you don't have to be tough, too: another word for resilient or persistent--or what some might call "crazy".

Think about it.

Lots of folks will look at someone who's written a novel, a book, or an assortment of poetry and say, "I could never do that."

It's true. If you say that you could never do that, then you're right. You could NEVER do that.

It takes guts to write something for an audience--to put your work out there knowing it can be judged by people who know what they're talking about, like other writers, for instance.

And judged even more harshly by folks who have no flippin' idea what they're talking about. Like that dang girlfriend I was telling you about.

But then again, few things in life are as rewarding or provide the sense of purpose as writing gives. At its best, literature is a soulful connection between human beings.

If you don't believe me, just think back on all those times when after reading someone else's stories and words, they touched something deep inside yourself with power and so much feeling.

Sheesh, as I sit here and type this little diddy about whether or not writers need to be cra-cra, and then about the power of the written word, I just gotta tell ya how stoked I am.

Super excited to think about what I might create.

Jazzed to consider how you might receive it.

Fired-up to know that a fella can sit here on a random weekend evening, consider the mental state of a creator, write about it, ask about it, then publish it.

Damn.

That's a kinda power that only a legit crazy writer will ever know.

Maybe I just answered my question.

Perhaps one does need to be "touched" to create with 26-characters and a typewriter.

Yeah.

I'm going with that.

Oh, and that girlfriend I mentioned way back several hundred words ago?

I dumped her.