Writer’s High

I am riding the wave of a very happy high and I want to share it with all of you, the fabulous people who take the time to read my rambling writings. 

You know that delicious feeling you get when you finish a wonderful novel, or walk out at the end of a great movie.  It’s a contact high from being in the world of the characters.  You get to feel their adrenaline, their endorphins, their thrills, their peace, their joy. 

I’m writing my first novel and it is going better than expected.  Yesterday I wrote for hours and produced a chapter that I was proud of.  It will still need tweeking, but I knew I got it right because I had a contact high from my characters that I am still coming off of this morning.

I must have 20 drafts from trying to get started on this novel.  I knew the story I wanted to tell, but I couldn’t find my voice.  Everything I wrote sounded contrived or cliche or fake.  My breakthrough came when I started writing this blog.  It turns out that writing is a one of those skills that the more you do it, the easier it gets and the better you get (or at least I think so).  If I’m not getting better, this may not be the time to tell me.  To keep writing on the novel I will need to stay in my world of delusion. 

And I have to say, I am LOVING this fantasy world (delusional or not).  I am absolutely floating along in a bubble of sweet, happy love (it’s a romance novel). 

I’m not sure how many other jobs can list “contact high” as a benefit, at least any other legal jobs.  Sure, there are drawbacks, like no promise of ever making a red cent from your work and only having imaginary friends to play with, but the perks far outweigh the drawbacks.  Knowing that what I write might make even one person happy (even if that one person is me) is motivation enough to just keep trying.