A friend forwarded me an email from someone about doing a Twitter search on the phrase, “working on my novel.”
“It’s like a car wreck,” the guy had written. “We were annoyed that everyone slowed down to look, but now we’re mesmerized.”
Entries he’d found included:
“I was working on my novel bc that’s what my whole day of solitude was for but the right song came on. Damnit.”
and:
“Maybe I should stop procrastinating and start working on my novel. I started in the seventh grade. I’m in the tenth now with no progress.”
and my personal favorite:
“Working on my novel. Trying to stay awake.”
Funny thing: my literary agent has been screamingly busy lately. The other day I asked her why, and she said, “With the downturn in the economy, suddenly people are coming out of the woodwork with manuscripts they want to see about publishing.”
During the Great Depression, despite crushing unemployment and financial hardship, 60 to 70 million Americans still packed into theaters every week to part with a precious 15¢ or 20¢ and be entertained, uplifted and inspired.
If you’ve always thought about writing but never given it serious effort, maybe now’s the time.
