A Day in the Life: Foregoing the Lake

Today I'm on a lake in Maine on vacation. Sun is out. A gentle breeze is blowing. Everyone except me is out on the lake on a group outing in kayaks and canoes. I'm sitting on the porch with my computer. I just finished my website updates, I'm working on my blog, and next I'm off to work on an uncontracted fantasy proposal while I'm waiting to hear back from my editor on the complete manuscript I turned in and a synopsis I gave her for the next book. Line edits are on their way for my January book, and I know I'll be crazy busy soon with revisions. Now is my only window to work on this uncontracted proposal, and I'm not going to miss it.

As I watched everyone float away and tried to keep my dogs from diving in and chasing them, a little part of me wanted to grab another boat and go off with them. But I marched inside, got my computer and sat down to work.

Yes, I would have liked to have gone. But if I'd gone out there, the whole time I was on the lake I would have been thinking about my writing and how I needed to get some work done. Partly out of a sense of obligation, because writing is my job, but also because it keeps me sane. For both reasons, I need to do it every day, no matter what else is going on, even a sunny afternoon on a lake in Maine.

Why do I do it? Because I love it. Because I have the best job in the whole wide world, and I want to be able to keep doing it for another 70 years. It's not a sacrifice for me to forego the lake. It's a honor and I will never take it for granted that I have the opportunity to follow my dream.

Writing is work. It's a job. But what a job. I wish everyone could have the opportunity to have a job that they love as much as I love mine.

posted by Stephanie Rowe @ 10:23 AM