How to write your heart out

So there I was, sitting cozy and comfy in one of those large leather college dormitory lounge chairs with a list of next semester's courses

and a pad of paper balancing on my lap (this was BPCs & LTs, or "Before PCs and Laptops"). Leafing through the English courses, I noted that a famous novelist would be giving a creative writing course for beginners.

My eyes lit up. Should I? Should I follow my passion and simply dump the extra philosophy course (picking it up some other time) and enroll in that writing class?!! Why not?

The professor and Best-Selling Published Author strode to the front of the room (tweed jacket with leather-patches on the elbows and Meerschaum pipe tucked into his pocket; beard, with hair graying at the temples) and glared at all thirty of us as if we'd just stolen his best excuse for being alive.

"So you want to write?" was his accusation. "WHY?"

Stunned, I sat there and let that BIG WHY drip slowly into my psyche like a gutter so imploded with dirty rainwater, it had no other choice than to dump. All I could hear was the echo of this man's pain, loneliness, frustration and fear that the Next Book would not be a Best Seller.

Are you crazy? he was asking. Why do you want to put yourself through the hell of a high-risk life with few rewards and dubious returns (how many authors really do make the Best Seller List)? Why would anyone want to deal with the agony and ecstasy of 1) writer's block, 2) jealous colleagues, and 3) pandering fans?

My answer came back loud and clear%u2026 in fact so loud and clear, I've never forgotten that classroom moment nor the dreamy "lounge chair visionary" experience that preceded it. Here is my response to the big WHY:

Because I cannot not write.

Incidentally, this creative writing professor never met the class again after that first session-which ended as soon as he'd volleyed his two questions. Out the door he walked and was unavailable thereafter either for class or office hours.

I didn't mind. He'd served his purpose simply by delivering that all important "WHY?" question that motivated me to ask "Why not?"

I had fallen in love with the Muse and knew from that time on that I was going to become a professional writer.

Hot off the press is the ebook Write to Publish for Profit, soon to be published in hard copy. Enjoy!