Why do we do it, anyway?

There are a lot of excuses reasons not to write. Get almost any group of teachers together and you'll hear over and over again "I should write a book about that" but do they? No. Why? Let's count the ways, shall we? We shall:

1. I'm too busy actually teaching to write a book. Maybe over vacation. Or after I retire.
2. My husband/wife/kids/friends/sister/brother/parents think its a dumb idea.
3. This house isn't going to clean itself nor will its inhabitants feed themselves.
4. The kids/pets/spouse/etc. need my attention and writing a book would be selfish.
5. I just CAN'T MISS the next episode of *insert name of TV show here*, I'm invested in the series!
6. There are already too many books on the shelves to read them all, why do we need more?

You get the idea.

So, why do we do it? What makes us take time away from sleeping, cooking, exercising, our kids, our spouses, and the dust bunnies under our beds? If you're here, you're probably a writer and you know what a long road this is. If anyone here thinks that you can just slap some words on a piece of paper and wake up the next morning with a 6-figure deal, you should probably scroll through our archives a bit.

Also, read this post from my virutal-friend Jenny Milchman to see how long and heartbreaking - and then uplifting - it can be. Go ahead. We'll wait. (don't forget to come back, though!)

Just for fun, I emailed christy this week that I write so that I can have a book that goes to auction, get that elusive 7-figure deal, and then play Oprah for awhile. You know, stand around and point to people and say "You get a car! You get a car! Everybody gets a car!"

That's what this writing thing is about, right?? *cough*

Okay, fine, I DO want to do the Oprah thing. But there are a few other reasons I write, too. And they just about mirror the reasons above, which I didn't realize until now. Here they are:

1. I was planning on being Raptured on Saturday, but since that didn't happen, I have some extra time on my hands.

that was just a test to see if you were paying attention

1. As a teacher, I see inspiration every day at work. What better to do with that than turn it into a book? And then over vacation or after retirement, I can write MORE books!!

2. Everyone thinks having a published book is cool. They might think it's a weird idea if I do it for a few months and then let it go, but if I really stick with it, my family will understand why. If not, once I'm published, I can stick out my tongue and say nananabooboo.

3. It doesn't take long to spot clean and anyway, a messy house is a happy house. Also, if kids weren't meant to feed themselves, then I have no idea why they keep making Pop-tarts and Capri Sun.

4. I deserve to do something for myself. Writing a book keeps me in the house and gives me purpose. The relationships I have with my kids/pets/spouse/etc. will be better if I'm happy. Writing makes me happy. It's a glorious circle.

5. My life will be better if I give up TV. (Except baseball, and luckily, it's easy to write while baseball's on)

6. Okay, this one's sort-of true. But if the publishing world had stopped with Dickens, no one would go to the library. Just sayin'.

Give it up in the comments, friends. Why do you write? And what will you do when your "Oprah moment" arrives? (please, no nananaboobooing. That's just immature. :P)

a preview of erica's book launch