to have written

A common (and thus cliched?) expression I hear among writers is “I don’t want to write; I want to have written.” The point being that the actual slog of writing is hard work, but the glow of having it finished (and brilliantly, of course) is wonderful.

I think pretty much the same about running. While I might anticipate this weekend’s 5K with excitement right now, come Friday evening, I’ll be full of dread and worry. Then, after the run on Saturday, I’ll be surfing on a great wave of endorphins and feeling good about myself. Like seeing my stories in print.

I received one rejection this week. It was for “The Death of Superman,” and it was to another of the mags I had lost track of after submitting. As I look at the mag now, I see how it was a stretch, but I’m glad I tried. And in a way I’m glad I failed since, as I said in some earlier post, I’ve found I need to rewrite a bit of it to fix some continuity problems with the subsequent Fathers and Sons stories I’m writing.

Did I mention that I spent the weekend in a place called Norman, Oklahoma? (Such an unlikely place actually exists!) I traveled there for my nephew’s wedding. Nice town. Nice time. Lotsa beer (carbs . . . for running). But I didn’t do a whit of writing. I opened a couple of my stories thinking I could tinker with them while in the hotel but lost interest after reading a few paragraphs. I obviously wasn’t in the zone. I did manage to make some notes for the stories however. In fact, I made the notes on the wedding program (though not during the ceremony itself of course*).

So it’s back to routine now, and I’m looking forward to writing. And for me, I actually do enjoy the effort of writing at least as much as having written.

*though I was thinking up ideas the entire time

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