Writing Vacation

Whenever people ask me what I’m doing in the evening and I answer that I’ll be working, they often give me funny looks. And they should (unless they know me really well). Because I make flavors, literally, and that means I spend my work days mixing hundreds of chemicals together to make the stuff that goes in your coffee creamer, your yogurt, your favorite cookie or cake, the seasoning on your chips or breaded chicken. It’s not the kind of work I could ever take home. But that’s my day job.

At night (and on weekends), I work on writing. Sometimes I’m writing something new, sometimes editing/revising, and sometimes crafting query letters to send to literary agents. I call it work because I want people to know how serious I am about it. I spend just as much time per week on my writing as I spend making flavors, some weeks more. I may not get paid for it, but I have to put that much effort into it in the hopes that someday I’ll sign with an agent and a publisher and get my writing out there for others to read.

I’m so dedicated to my writing that even though my husband and I just spent this week on vacation (Philadelphia and Boston, if you’re curious), I was determined to still write.  I didn’t take my laptop, but I tucked a mini notebook in my carry-on. I can write the old fashioned way just as easily as type on a computer.

Turns out, I didn’t write a word (unless text messages, tweets, and Facebook statuses count). Turns out, when I go on vacation, I don’t mean just from my day job. I had every intention to write, I swear, but at the end of the day, after traipsing around Philadelphia or Boston for hours, I just wanted to lie down on my hotel bed and sleep. I love sleep.

Now, vacation’s over. I’ve washed vacation away (literally, because planes). My laptop’s half-dead from being unplugged all week, but I’m dragging the cord to my workspace in my library so I can get some words in. My goal is the same as every other writing day, one thousand words, excluding this blog post. I may not be going back to my day job until Monday, but I’m right back at the writing.