For too long, I had high expectations about what makes a writer truly a writer—-and almost all the bars I was holding myself to were rather superficial measures that Western society likes to embrace, such as could I fully support myself writing, was my office that classic book-lined grand, but understated, room with a well-worn leather chair, and did the critics even know my work, yet alone love it.
Not that long ago, I realized none of those things are necessary to be a writer, that I can writer for the SHEER PLEASURE OF IT! There doesn’t need to be a book deal or literary magazine publisher or a wildly successful blog with a detailed marketing plan and a shelf full of awards. I can write because I LOVE IT! I can write on a two-year-old MacBook in desperate need of a cleaning (sorry Steve Jobs), with no intention of ever making a penny or having a readership of more than one, and be just as happy writing as the author of the latest bestseller. THIS is the writer I want to be, who writes whatever is on her mind, good or bad, every single day until they have to pull my rigor-mortised fingers off the keyboard.
And so that's the inspiration behind the happy wordsmith. This blog is not going to be about finding writing work or arguing whether content writers are real writers or how to write a query letter or find an agent---there more than enough of these sites out in the blogosphere already. No, the happy wordsmith is about the Joy of writing, the pleasure of a carefully crafted turn of phrase, about what inspires us to take fingers to keyboards or pen to paper, how writers see the world just a little bit differently than nonwriters.
Although I write every day, I may not post here every day. But I intend to stop by several times during the week and also post to Twitter from time to time at "happywordsmith." Thanks for stopping by, and happy writing!