I'll Tell You What

First let me say welcome back. After feeling under the weather last week, I had no choice but to take some time to heal. During that time, I had plenty of opportunity to come up with things to talk about. Today's discussion fell in my lap by accident.

Many times I've talked about joining an online writer's site.  A great number of the writers on this site are young and tech savvy and often have Face Book pages or blogs devoted to their writing. In that capacity, they're often seeking new people to interview. I've done quite a few interviews for these sites, which has been invaluable in increasing exposure for my work.

Just yesterday, I did another interview with a budding writer. One of the questions she asked was what I liked so much about writing. The hair trigger response is to say it gives me an escape and makes me feel proud to produce something other people like. While this is true, it's not the thing I like most. The thing I like most about writing fell into my lap by accident.

This weekend, while feeling under the weather, my older daughter pulled an act of teenage stupidity. What she did isn't something I feel like going into, but I can say it had me fuming. In a matter of convenient timing, I was asked to do an interview about writing and asked what I liked most about writing.

I'll tell you what I like about writing. I like being able to have total control. My characters do what I want when I want them to. Their lives are at my disposal. If I don't like what they're doing or how a scene is going, I can change it, including and up to deleting it. Writing is the only place I have this kind of control and freedom. I can discipline my child or tell her what to do and when but ultimately, the decision of compliance is hers. Not so with writing. In my writing I have the control.

And I'll tell you what, I like that having that control. Since I can't have it in real life, I'll enjoy my chance to experience it through my writing.