It’s a Dismally Lonely Business, Writing

I don’t spend a lot of time talking about my writing here. I’ve wanted to start a Hallee the Writer (or Author?) blog, but I wanted to integrate it into this one, and honestly, I can’t really figure out what to talk about. I write. I don’t really have anything much else to say right now. Well, I obviously have LOTS to say – the question is, who would be interested in hearing about how I’ve sweated out chapter 13 today and then subsequently discarded it for a MUCH better chapter 13?

In fact, when I went to write this blog post, I realized I didn’t even have a “Writing” category. So, here it is, my first “Writing” post.

Anyway – on to my story.

One thing Gregg and I have done over the last couple of months is increase the number of days our babysitter comes to work so that I can spend two mornings a week writing. I find it impossible to write fiction when my attention is split with the boys. When I really get in the groove, I hear nothing around me and am unaware of anything going on – not really a great idea when I have two very active toddlers running around.

So, two mornings a week, I go down to my basement around 8:30, and I write until 12:30. Some days, I manage to get out two chapters, some days I stare at the same paragraph for an hour before finally eeking out a single chapter. It just depends on how my brain is working that particular day.

This morning while working, I stopped to use a thesaurus. I use on online thesaurus. I have one built into my writing program that’s good, but I like the online thesaurus best because, well, I guess just because. So, whenever I use it, which is all the time, I leave the writing program and go online (and maybe check Facebook and my comments here – heh.)

As I checked the thesaurus this morning, the daily quote caught my eye.

It’s a dismally lonely business, writing. ~ Toni Cade Bambara

That gave me pause. It gave me long enough pause to stop what I was doing and write this blog post about it.

If you’ve read my testimony, you’ll know that Gregg and I had a very dark time in our marriage. At the peak of that time, when I didn’t even know if we would stay married for another week or month, I went back to my writing that I hadn’t even looked at for five or six years. I did it for a way to reconnect with my husband – you’ll learn when we ever post “Our Story” (which will be given to you from both our perspectives – we’re working on it now) just how much writing had to do with bringing us together in the first place. Now we were in this awful place and before we learned that what we had to do was give it all to God, we used my writing and his editing as a bridge to bring us together when nothing else could at that time.

It has only brought us closer together. Over the last two years, I’ve written two books and am almost done with number three. Gregg has outlined several and started one on his own and one with which we’re collaborating. Together we talk about them, work out writing blocks, smooth out the creases, and ponder plot points. We do it together. As a team.

Writing is actually something that brought us both out of an incredibly lonely existence to be together, to work together, to create together. I don’t think I could continue writing if I didn’t have Gregg working with me as my partner in it, and I know for a fact that my final product would be nothing like what it is now.

I guess what struck me with that quote was just how untrue it is for me. How it doesn’t reflect my life or my experience. Writing is a way I abide in my husband and he in me, and it is quite the opposite of lonely.