Crazy is as Crazy Does

I’ve jumped out of perfectly good airplanes and have my own parachute, owned and flown several planes, traveled to more than twenty countries on four continents, and writing is a passion I carry with me everywhere.

Whether I’m in Vegas to night jump from 15,000 feet or on a cruise to Tokyo, a laptop is by my side. Novel writing is a recent addition to my love of expression, but I’ve written letters to my kids – ones they won’t receive until I’m in the grave, journals about travel from one place to another, and short stories about one time traveler, or monster, or crazy character. I just enjoy telling stories.

I’m a liar. That’s what it boils down to. Writers are good liars. We can make up stories, keep them straight in our heads and make them sound believable sometimes. Occasionally, the story is interesting enough that others find it interesting. In rare instances, the interest is enough to get the story in front of an editor or publisher and once in a great while to print. But, we’re all good liars.

I’m a terrible reader and a worse speller, as any readers of my raw work will tell you, but I’m an avid listener and devour books on Audible, sometimes five or six a week and “reading” makes better writers. My current library contains more than 400 titles from King, Koontz, Slaughter, Stoker and Patterson. That’s only from the last seven days.

My girlfriend will tell you. and often tells me through comments like, “Earbud much?”, that I listen to books relentlessly, sometimes twelve or more hours a day. My “speed” is set to 1.4X and a 12-hour book can be completed in less than eight. Between apps like Audible, Audiobooks, and Libby, I have listened to more than 7,000 hours and that doesn’t include tapes and CDs of years past.

Listening, like reading, is a habit and has exposed me to everything from horror and fantasy to love, history and education. I try and listen to one educational book for every two or three others. On Writing by Stephen King, Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner, Writing Great Fiction by James Hynes are just a few from the last couple weeks.

Am I crazy for listening to that many titles each week? It is crazy to think I can have a best-seller one day? I don’t believe so, but do crazy people know they’re crazy? When David Mills asked John Doe, “Do you know that you’re insane?” he replies, “It’s more comfortable for you to label me insane.” The dialog goes back and forth and Mills decides people must not know when they’re crazy.

Maybe I’m just crazy and haven’t figured it out yet. I’ve done all this writing, thousands of pages, and have one published book to show for it. I put in all the effort to see Black Friday printed, but haven’t made any money. Does that mean I’m crazy for continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result? Hell no!!! It would be crazy for me to give up doing something I enjoy so much, regardless of the financial reward. That’s not why most writers write. It’s certainly not why I write.

Do I have dreams of a best-seller? Of course. What writer doesn’t, but I enjoy telling the story. Actually, it’s more accurate to say, I enjoy seeing how the story ends, because I don’t know. I’m what many writers refer to and a “pantser” or one who writes by the seat of their pants. I’m not a “plotter” or a “plantser” and don’t know where my story is going from page to page. I have to write the story to find the answer and that discovery is as joyous to me as reading anything by Stephen King or David Baldacci or Michael Crichton. Crazy would be giving up before I find out how the story ends.

So, am I crazy? I say not. What do you think?