Writing and retirement

Maybe I should change this to a retirement blog. I think I like retirement nearly as much as spanking. And with retirement I get to enjoy it all the time. I’ve tried to come up with the best thing about retirement, but there are so many things to choose from. Getting up when I want to is near the top of the list. When I got up to take Mollie’s cat to the vet the other day it was dark! I don’t want to get up in the dark. Since Nick leaves for work before five am I got little understanding or sympathy from him. I also don’t like showering in the dark. When I complained about this to Nick I got a bland look and the suggestion that I turn on the bathroom light. HaHa. He knows what I mean, we have a solar tube in the shower and I love the light that floods in during the day. That’s when I like to shower.

But I guess for me it’s having the time to write is that I love best. I’m still not as disciplined as I’d like to be. I think I’d get a lot more writing done if I’d turn the internet off when I sit down to write. I’m bad to hop over and check FB or the blog or emails. But I do try to get in several hours of writing a day. I’m not sure whether writing is a career, a hobby or a way to waste time. As for a career – well, I’d hate to try and live on what I earn. Although everything I have made has thrilled me and gone way beyond anything I thought I’d make through writing. I should say it’s more than a hobby, maybe I should call it a lifelong passion. I was about twelve when I day dreamed of writing Cassie’s stories.

A way to waste time? Nick said something that made me feel good the other day. We were discussing the possibility of him retiring. He knows how much I like it, but I’m not sure he would. He likes being active. And I told him, “I don’t know if you’d like it as much as I do. I like sitting around doing nothing, but you don’t.” He replied, “I wouldn’t call writing nothing.” Just a simple statement but it made me happy that he felt that way and that he'd said it.

I could see how someone might think otherwise. Have you ever watched someone write? Yes, sometimes I’m pounding the keyboard like it’s on fire. But there is so much of my writing time spent staring into space. What I’m actually doing most of that time is listening. Sometimes I’m sitting with my eyes closed. I know Nick has to think I’m sleeping – but I’m not, I’m watching.  I don’t snatch words from the air. I’ve spent more time in the room with Cassie and friends than I have anyone in real life. For Cassie, especially, I don’t create scenes and dialogue. I watch the scene and listen carefully to what everyone says so I can type it later.

It’s so nice to have my characters do the work for me. This is a little harder for me with Cal and Jenny, but as I get to know them better it’s getting easier. I start out with a skeleton of an idea and hand it to my characters. They fill in the guts as well as the muscles and skin and everything else. Sometimes they even make changes to the skeleton. That’s why I love series, I always want to know what happen next. I have ideas for stand-alone books but knowing me if I ever get around to writing them, I’ll try to turn it into a series. I just can’t create characters to toss them aside at the end of the book.

I’m going to keep writing as long as anyone’s reading. Actually, I’m going to keep writing whether anyone’s reading or not. Be it a career, a hobby or a waste of time it’s an important part of my life and it always will be.