Plotting the next chapter of my life.
This weekend I spent a charming evening in Columbus’ German Village. A friend and I enjoyed catching up over dinner at Barcelona, and then we visited The Book Loft – a Columbus book-lovers gem. The store itself has more “twists and turns” than a Robert Ludlum novel: you never know where the next room or stairway will lead you. Visitors wander through a maze of 32 rooms (yes, 32!) lined top to bottom with books and other novelties. Walking through its narrow halls and discovering unexpected corridors is a delight in and of itself, but when you unexpectedly find that perfect book among the thousands of others – it’s almost like magic, especially in The Book Loft.
I experienced a little bit of that magic Friday night. I wasn’t looking for anything particular, but I did know that I would leave with at least one book in hand. I was slowly making my way through a hallway and was over stimulated with the bounty of books surrounding me. I paused, turned to my left to study a shelf of titles, and there she was: the 2013 Writer’s Guide. It was the one and only copy. I reached for it and didn’t let go. It was fate.
That night I crawled into bed and started reading until my eyes were on fire. I woke early Saturday morning and made my way to Panera, where I sipped hazelnut coffee and devoured more of the articles in the front of the book. And now it’s Sunday morning, and I feel the excitement and urgency of what it means to be a working writer who wants to write more. (More on this in a future post.)
In the few hours I’ve spent with Writer’s Guide this weekend, I’ve made pages of notes, started a writer’s to-do list, written a blog post (this one), updated my social media, and have put ideas on paper for a juvenile-fiction story for boys that I thought of on my drive back home from Columbus. Not bad. I guess Writer’s Guide has inspired me to kick-start some writing projects.
However… there is a lot of work ahead of me. And that in my spare time: evenings and weekends.
“One word at a time, a few scheduled nights a week,” I’m telling myself. I can do this.
What about you? Are you newly inspired in some way? Has a book captured your imagination? What are you working on in your spare time?
Me? I’ll be reading, writing, and re-writing. And one day, hopefully, submitting and publishing.
Wendy White 