Friday, April 15, 2011

And in this corner! Brutish, gruff, and smelly!

I’ve often thought that after creating man, God stood back to examine his creation: big, hairy, brutish, gruff, and smelly. God shuddered, “I can do better than that!”
            So he created woman.
Afterward he stood back to admire his creation: small feet, capable slender hands, delicate facial features, pleasant voice, and as a stroke of genius, breasts. Visually, the female creature is far superior to the male creature. God had to have had a smile on his face after that accomplishment. But…
            ...he didn’t get everything right. The female creature is annoyingly prone to headaches.
            My wife gets them.
            And Becky gets them. Week-long migraines.
Becky’s headaches affect her writing and our collaboration. More than anything else, our rewriting has been most affected, because it’s more of a team effort than writing the first draft. I usually start checking on her health at least two days before we are supposed to meet, because the headaches sometimes take days to come on. Then they sometimes just happen all at once, and she has to call and cancel at the last minute.
On the most part, she is a trooper and suffers through our rewriting sessions, but you can tell the difference in quality and output.
Me? I’m a baby. When I get a headache, screw everything. I take aspirin and go to bed. On her good days Becky is sharp and quick, and I’m not going to say she is dull and lethargic on her bad days, (because she will be reading this) but she/we are far less productive.
Headaches fall into the category of “shit happens.” I have my bad days too, everyone does.
You and your writing partner will have bad days brought on by poor health, family problems, job stress or any of a number of things, but you can and will work your way through it, finish that book and become world famous authors.
As for me…screw it I’m going to bed.

No comments: