One Hit, I’m Wondering
I always wonder what makes a writer stop writing. I never want to find out from personal experience. I have read a few books by authors that I have enjoyed, and I put them on my preferred author’s list so when I am looking for something new I start with them. It shocks me when years go by, and there is nothing new. I worry about them. Did something happen to them? Did something happen to their passion for writing? Were they connected to a bad book deal? What? Just What?
I have been excited about something I thought was a new idea, and I start writing or researching on it, and then I put it down for a day or two, and I think about it. Sometimes I realize that it is a character that I already have a storyline for that is talking to me, or I realize that it is the same idea I had last week just from a different perspective and so I use it to either find my character’s voice or story. It is that simple for me. Is that right? I don’t know. It is how I work, so it is right for me.
My book club read a book called Fish and Grits by Tina Smith-Brown back in 2011, and I enjoyed the book so much that I have probably read it like four times. I know. I have issues. I have no problem re-reading a book because half the time I have forgotten most of it because I am creating my own work. So, when I can’t find somthing new that grabs me, I go back to what I know I have enjoyed in the past.
Queen Sugar is another favorite of mine by Natalie Baszile. I know she sold the rights to Oprah and the television show is amazing, but what about the next book? Ruby by Cynthia Bond was dark and gripping and left me wanting another novel as well. Twelve Tribes of Hattie was a book so good I couldn’t put it down. I read it in a day, at work. I’m just saying. I was ducking and dodging people all day that day. I love when a book does that to me. Where is the next book?
I have not won my first Pulitzer Prize, but it is coming, and when it does, I want my readers old and new to have a history of me. A knowledge that writing is like skin color for me. I was born with it, and I am cozied and comfortable in it. I know that not everyone will like my skin same as my writing, but I’m in it to win it.
I am looking out at the sunrise waiting to see the footprints of these great authors who are seemingly gone, but certainly not forgotten. I’ll wait on greatness.
The Writer
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