Doing the Yucky Writer Stuff

Were you ever a fan of Jon & Kate Plus 8? Before Jon left and made it a sad sounding Kate Plus 8? If you haven’t a clue as to what I’m talking about. It’s okay. I’ll save you the TLC gory details.

Anyway, there was one episode where Kate Gosselin, mother of 8 (twins and sextuplets) said something like, “Being a mom is not a glamorous job, but it’s a rewarding one!”

The same can be said about writing.

In fact, in a recent No Reservations episode (can you tell I watch too much TV?), Anthony Bourdain said, “Writers are boring. If we were interesting we would get out and do something instead of write about doing something.”

Oh how true that is!

While I do get a thrill from writing every once in awhile. Mostly, it’s just me sitting on my butt all day, staring into the glaring eyes of the computer screen.

But if you’re a new or wannabe writer, you must know this now!

Not every day is a glamorous one.

Take transcribing, for example.

When I daydreamed in my office cubicle as an Apple worker, Research Assistant, etc., I fantasized about what my writer life would be like. I didn’t have any specific role models so I took my favorite bloggers and dreamed about being them for a day.

Little did I know that being a writer meant doing the yucky writer stuff. And I think every writer has them. Something they would avoid at all costs.

That’s how I feel about transcribing.

It’s tedious, time-consuming, my fingers ache, not too mention I don’t get paid extra to do it.

So why do I do it?

I could hire a VA (virtual assistant) after all. Or I could spend my dough on one of those cool digital pens that take notes for you.

But there’s something about the process, no matter how much I despise it, that’s good for me.

I get to really listen to what the interviewee is saying, for example. And typing out the words onto the screen often gets soaked up into my lil noggin and potential words for my article starts to spewing out of me.

Sounds disgusting, doesn’t it?

It ain’t pretty.

Yet, it’s writing. And I guess I love it. So what can you do?*

Guess it’s like being in a relationship.

Sometimes you got to suck it up and do all that yucky stuff, in the name of love.

{*Actually there is something you can do. If you dislike transcribing like me, do it late at night or early in the morning or whenever you’re tired and don’t have the energy to do things like query or work on that article draft. It’s actually a great thing to do that doesn’t take a lot of thinking. So your mind can take just a little break and yet you’ll still feel like you are accomplishing something.}