Part strange

One of the strangest things about being a writer is people’s reaction when you tell them that you are. Most of the time there’s a slight admiration followed by the general expression that “yeah, everyone says they’re a writer”. But then when I tell them to Google my name and see what comes up, the admiration becomes real. Here’s what I’ve discovered about the nature of the arts and you can feel free to disagree with me, because like I say, these are only my biased opinions. Most people can paint a picture and most people can draw a picture and most people can play an instrument. I’ll also say that most people can write a story and most people can create a sculpture from clay. But when it comes to writing novels; that is an art form that most people can’t do. And it is not because of a lack of talent or differentiation of talent that separates these art forms. All require great skills. But unlike writing a novel: a song, painting, sculpture, short story, etc., can be composed, drawn, or molded in one day, or at least the majority of it if the artist is talented. There are numerous stories of hit music written in fifteen minutes or a painting that a great artist completed in one day. But with novel writing, I dare you to find anyone who can write a novel in one day. What separates novelist from all other arts is the time needed to create a great work. There are no fifteen minute hits, but there can be fifteen-year-in-the-making novels that hit it big. I think people are fascinated by novelists because of the commitment it takes to write several hundred pages that make coherent sense and tell a great story. The seclusion and isolation novelist must endure to create their masterpiece. It usually takes me about eight months to complete a book. That’s a lot of hours alone.