The Writing Life

I have been wanting to read this for a while, but I’ve never read Annie Dillard and have been intimidated by the reviews that I’ve seen.  But this month I decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), so I ordered this as a way to keep motivated.

And I’m so glad I did.

Dillard uses humor so well, I felt like I was in on all of her jokes without even knowing her.  This book is written so casually – just in small vignettes that can be read in a couple of minutes – but beautifully illustrates her life as a writer.  I was surprised to read that Annie hates being a writer, but she is one of those authors who is a true artist and has no choice but to do this work.  She agonizes over writing a single word, which seems exhausting.

This book might be for you if you love hearing a master talk about her work or if you love the romantic ideal of being a writer – but this might just flip the idea of romance on its head!

But I do have to share that I have been keeping up with NaNoWriMo!  For those that aren’t familiar, the goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words (the average word count of a novel) in 30 days.  In order to stay on track, you would need to average 1667 words a day.  Today’s target is 25,005 words and I have completed 26,265!  I am over the moon and so surprised that I’ve made it this far.

My novel has taken a sharp left turn since the election, which I am excited about.  But I’m also scared, because I’m starting to incorporate storylines that are painful for me to think about, so it’s been emotionally draining.

But read on, fellow bibliophiles!  Books will see us through!