So, before I get into the actual subject matter here, I have to relate the Bizarre Thing that happened on the way to this post! I was sitting on the couch, pondering good lyrics for post titles, and the song "When the Going Gets Tough" popped into my head out of the clear blue sky. I thought to myself, Hmmm..... Relevant, but maybe a little too cliche'? I mentally filed it away as a possibility and continued meandering through the monster-sized box in my brain labeled "80's Songs". Not two minutes later, I picked up the TV remote to scroll through the cable guide for something interesting. Coming to the Palladia channel, I saw "80's Rewind Concert 2011". I thought, Cool! Maybe this will give me some ideas, and I pressed the select button. Lo and behold, there was Billy Ocean, in all his dreadlocked glory, singing..... "When the Going Gets Tough". I'm sure, Dear Reader, you are just as flabbergasted as I was. Talk about your freaky coincidences..... I don't know about you, but I'm taking it as a sign. Hence, today's title.
And now for the relevant part. Obviously, I am the "Tough" who is getting going in this metaphor. "But what 'going' is getting tough?" you may ask. (Thank you for asking!) And I will answer that I have recently become a Floridian. Wait - this in itself is not the tough part. The tough part is that summer is quickly approaching, temperatures are rising, and, at present, there is no pool in my backyard.
Shocking and scandalous, I know. But who knew that the burning desire for a backyard oasis would be the motivating factor to kick start a career? This brings me to the deeper issue and the point of this particular blog post, which is: why do writers write? My short answer at the moment is, of course, that I need to pay for a pool. But the fact is that I've been writing for much, much longer than I've considered trying to make money from it. I used to write random editorials and poetry in high school because I needed to ramble and it looked like I was doing work and I could get away with not paying attention. (Don't judge - I was always an honors student!) I've also written more essays and term papers and reports than I care to remember. One of the joys of being an English major was always trying to figure out how to write for each professor in order to get an A. And it was different for every one of them. One time, an obnoxious, power-hungry T.A. took points off my essay for using the British spelling of "behaviour" - I had to remember not to do that again! But I digress.
The written word has always fascinated me. Books are passports to any time and place you want to go. The twists and turns of plots can be as heart-clenching as a roller coaster ride. A rare few amazing books have kept me reading into the wee hours of the morning, and then I've had to spend the rest of the pre-dawn hours readjusting my mind back to reality because I'd been drawn so far into the story. That's some good writin'!! And I've always wondered - and hoped - that maybe I had a story like that somewhere inside me.
In the meantime, I'll do what I can to earn a pool payment. I can honestly say that this editing / proofreading / writing thing is my dream job at the moment. I love it enough that it doesn't matter that I'll never get rich doing it. But I can lounge in my pool and pretend that I am.
# OF PROOFREADS: 18
# OF EDITS: 22
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