Friday, January 22, 2010

I'm Elbow Deep in Words

ADDaboy! Wordle Cloud - (cc) Douglas Cootey

It's 7am and I should be in bed, but I'm up writing instead. This is a good thing, though perhaps the AM could be PM.

My life has been busy writing, which makes me immensely happy. However, I have not finished "Take a Hike!". Two stanzas await my attention. They don't exist yet, but when I'm done with them I will wonder how my story managed without them.

How could I be happily writing if I'm not writing my picture book (now an early reader), my chapter book (most likely now a younger middle grade novel), and my novel (still an older middle grade novel, but perhaps soon a 19 volume treatise on singing magic before I'm done with it)? That is easy to answer. I have been busy writing for other people.

For the past two weeks I've been trying to revise a new article for ADDitude Magazine. I've rewritten it so many times it no longer seems clever or witty or entertaining in any way. I don't resent my editor's suggestions. Far from it. The article is a much better piece for all his input. I just am so deep in the same words that I will need time before I can come back and enjoy them. I imagine the editor grows just as tired rereading the same articles. I can only hope he still enjoys the piece after all the edits. I have yet to hear back. It is a taste of things to come.

The other client I have been writing for is HealthyPlace.com. They enjoyed my interview with them so much that they asked me to blog for them. They were expanding their site to include blogs and I was one of the few they hoped to launch it with. I can't imagine what they are thinking, but I said "yes" anyway. The blog is called ADDaboy! and I hope you will go over and leave comments, or at least lurk in a way that makes them happy they hired me. The blog will be about ADHD and will in many ways be exactly like how I used to blog here except shorter and on somebody else's site.

And now I have come to the end and I must sleep. In a short time the evil worker demons next door will begin banging their nails, cutting their boards, and making a great deal of non-sleepy noise. In this archetypal battle between good and evil, I will lose and end up grumpy. Good night. Good day. And thank you for reading.