California Dreaming
(Or is it gray? Did you know there is actually a website devoted to answering that question?
I am not really dreaming about California, but I felt like giving a nod to The Mamas and The Papas anyway. Today, like most days when I am flat tired from my day job, I am dreaming about the life of a full time writer.
I picture it like this :
- I send the kids off to school with a smile because I haven't spent the morning yelling things like, "When you are late, then I am late! I don't care the socks don't match. Put them on and let's go!"
- I walk an hour on my treadmill while analyzing my plot points, constructing my character arcs and composing witty, believable dialogue. Added benefit: I lose 20-75 pounds while working.
- I walk through my clean house with no dishes in the sink and no mound o' laundry poised to avalanche on to the kitchen floor to my computer.
- I write uninterrupted for hours as the words flow freely in the silent buzz of the empty house. I pause only to smile at my four legged companion who likes to sleep on my feet. Several thousands words a day grace my work in progress.
- I have a quiet, peaceful lunch with my husband without having to remind someone not eat with her face in the plate like she is a dog. We also discuss sensitive topics without converting the conversation into "hide -the- true -meaning- from- the- kids" code which neither one of us can understand, but the kids can decipher with little effort.
- I go back to writing for hours when he returns to work. Then easily shut down the computer when my children arrive home. Confident I have written my best and expended my creativity for the day.
- I spend the evening guilt-free. I cheerfully help with homework and prepare dinner instead of trying to write, microwave chicken strips and recite spelling words.
- I check homework, make the costume for the school play and remember snacks for the Girl Scout meeting because I am focused and organized without the added responsibilities of teaching
- I check my email, converse with my friends on twitter, and prepare my blogs.
- I climb into bed at a decent hour, knowing all my ideas will wait. I have all day tomorrow to write. There is no need to stay up until all hours of the night.
So tell me, what do you picture being a full-time writer to be like? If you are a full-timer, what is your day like?
( Be gentle. It is the only bubble I've got, don't burst it too harshly)
BONUS:
I like to dabble dream interpretation. It is for entertainment purposes only and I do not claim to have any talent in this area, but I have been told I am pretty good. So, leave me a dream in your comment and I will decipher it for you to the best of my ability. :)
9 comments:
I love your dream. Mine would be very similar. Not sure I would change anything, except I may pause to garden (in the summer only of course) and enjoy writing on my back patio.
That sounds good. Of course, I'm in Texas. If I tried writing on the back patio in the summer, the pencil would probably melt!
Wow, what a lovely dream. *snicker*. Mine is pretty similar, except my kids would be so good that I wouldn't even need to check homework and they would be able to make their own costumes. And there would be a pool boy named Raoul, who looks alot like Johnny Depp in there somewhere.
How could I forget the pool boy?!?!? Mine would be named Pablo and resemble Taylor Launter instead of Johnny Depp.:)
I decided, finally, that I was a writer when I was 42. I had 3 books published in my 59th year. I'm 64 now and am finally free to write full-time...
All it took was being in Viet Nam for a year and catching Hepatitis C. I'm very lucky I lived through Nam and that the treatments for Hep C worked.
I'm most lucky because a year in a war-zone and a deadly disease got me a small military pension :-)
Now that I don't have to struggle with a job, I'm working harder than I ever have.
I never would have dreamed the path I trod to attain my Dream...
BTW, I've added your blog to my Blogroll:
http://nfaa.wordpress.com/
Hi Alexander! Thank you for stopping by! Congratulations on achieving your dreams. I truly hope to be there someday.
And thank you for adding me to your roll!
That is indeed a pretty awesome dream. I have one quite similar.
Hello, Dawn. I am also a yet-to-be published author, and a teacher during the day. It was nice meeting you today!
P.S.: What about a dream regarding dancing potatoes in tutus in my parents' living room?
Mitzi~ Thank you so much for stopping by!
Scooter~ Always happy to welcome a fellow teacher. Do you teach big kids or little kids? I teach high school. The little ones terrify me!
Potatoes dancing in tutus in your parent's living room.Hmm, interesting. I would say there is an issue or problem within your family or your inner world that isn't earth shattering, but everyone is ignoring or stepping around.
I don't specifically say with your parents because their living room might represent something different than just them. My parents' living room would represent a safe, secure place for me. That is not necessarily the same for everyone.
Anyway, this problem is not huge, but enough that everyone is trying to "dress it up" (hence the tutus) and "dance around it". Rather than deal with it head on. Potatoes aren't pretty and I assuming they were big in the dream, but they aren't dangerous. Just annoying to having performing Swan Lake in your parents' house.
Am I close? :)
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