When Writing Takes Over Your Life

Would you be surprised to know that much of your writing work is done in places other than at your desk or computer? You know your writing has taken over your life when:

1. You idly roam the supermarket, not because you left your shopping list on the counter at home, but because you’re puzzling over plot.
2. You toss and turn at night, not because your credit card bill is growing while your hours are being cut, but because your characters are stuck in a rut.
3. You are in the back seat of a nice big car being driven to the airport and you grill the driver about his job because one of your characters is a limo driver.
4. On the airplane, you always ask the person next to you what they do for a living, and you want details.
5. While you watch a movie you think about how it would make a great subplot.
6. You hold a yard sale, not only to make some cash and clean the garage, but because you can sit at a table with a pen and notebook and make character descriptions based on the people who browse through your crap.
7. You are at a party when a conversation sparks an idea, and you begin taking notes—mental notes, that is, until you can get to the bathroom where you can write them down.
8. You are on the phone, scribbling, verbatim, the incredible story your friend is innocently telling you, until the friend says, “Wait, are you writing this down?” (You lie.)
9. Your characters come up with great dialogue while you’re in the shower, but, unfortunately, you cannot jot anything down, so you pray that you’ll remember everything they said.
10. In the middle of the night you scrawl your brilliant ideas on the pad you keep on the nightstand, and, in the morning, you read gibberish and wonder what the hell you were thinking.
11. The craziest sign, though, is when you’re making love and you envision your most attractive character…

Linda K. Sienkiewicz is the author of the award-winning literary novel In the Context of Love, a story about one woman’s need to tell her truth without shame. Discovering who you want to be isn’t easy when you can’t leave the past behind.

2017 New Apple Book Awards Official Selection
2016 Sarton Women’s Fiction Finalist
2016 Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist
2016 Readers’ Favorite Finalist
2016 USA Book News Best Book Finalist

“…at once a love story, a cautionary tale, and an inspirational journey.” ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of National Book Award Finalist, American Salvage, and critically acclaimed Once Upon a River,and Mothers, Tell Your Daughters

“With tenderness, but without blinking, Linda K. Sienkiewicz turns her eye on the predator-prey savannah of the young and still somehow hopeful.” ~ Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of the #1 NY Times Bestseller, Deep End of the Ocean

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