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Life of a Writer Mom Column
Writers' Creep by Carla CharterI walked into my bedroom last week and it hit me: I had a problem, or maybe my bedroom had the problem. I'm sure other writers have shared this problem with me. I call this dilemma "Writers' Creep." You see our house is small, without a lot of storage space. Thus, notebooks I have finished or clippings I want to save for later projects, get neatly put in piles and stored under the bed. It sounds like a great system, except for one thing: The space under the bed is only so big. Eventually the edges of my precious writing stuff start to creep out onto the floor. Sometimes mingling with the ten books I still want to read, an occasional notebook even becoming a pillow for a dog. This particular morning, though, I happened to be in cleaning mode. Experienced writers will be able to translate this instantly into the fact that I had writers' block. Anyway, there I stood with some underbed storage boxes, thinking the writers' creep had to go. I efficiently sat myself between two piles that I had pulled from under the bed. It would take, I decided about 15 minutes to go through these piles, an hour for the whole project, then I would go immediately to my writing. At least that was the plan—until I started actually sorting through the paper. First there were the old manuscripts from when I decided to try my hand at writing picture books. Those had to be saved because you never know when I might be able to publish one of them and if all else failed, they might amuse my great grandchildren someday. Then there were the old journalism notebooks. Those should be easy to weed out, until I made the mistake of opening them. Stories I had covered and favorite interviews I had done leapt from the pages. Okay, so maybe I would keep those, too—something to read when I am old and in a nursing home. Then there were my novel notebooks. Those I could never get rid of. Opening the first notebook from my first novel, I sat in the middle of the bedroom floor as entranced as when I'd first written the words. Although my writing has improved since then, those notebooks stayed. Mixed in with this were all kinds of half-done stories and long ago research. All too precious to part with. Three hours later I got up from the floor, with every piece of writers' creep placed in a box and back under the bed. Nothing had been weeded out, as everything I had stored was part of this incredible writing journey I am on. All of it a testament to a passion that still calls me forward and begs me to write the next chapter. Carla Charter is mom to Samantha (12), Halden (5), and Mathew (4). In addition to being a mom, Carla is a freelance writer specializing in newspaper and magazine journalism. Among her publication credits are Woman's World, American Indian Report and New England Business Journal. Online she has been published in Scubasource.com and Military.com. She teaches creative writing courses at Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner, Ma. Recently her novel Across Lots has been serialized at http://www.newenglandwow.com. She may be reached at cjfreelancewriter@earthlink.net. |
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