On Being a Writer

by Mewsette

I never thought I'd be a writer when I was young. I just grew up loving my life as a cat, reveling in every minute of it, and going out seeking better adventures when I got bored.

I've been a lot of things as a cat. Really. My mom says I deserve acatemy awards as an actress. I do the most heart-rending version of Camille you ever saw, and I've performed my Blanche DeBois in three homes. With an audience, too. And I sing, true, clear soprano. Think I'm kidding? Nope. You should hear me do Julie Andrews singing Edelweiss. You can hardly tell it's not her. Or my performance of Madama Butterfly at the back door. But my audience there is mostly a brown bunny, four shocked birds, and a dozen doodlebugs. There was something missing.

Then I discovered making speeches on podiums to other cats. Yes, yes. Perfect for someone who's talked a blue streak all their life. But the words go away then. I love words. I want them to stay. Write them down. Yes.

Writing all the talking. There it was. Writing poetry to the rhythms I feel. Writing my opinions, cause they're all so good. Thinking up stories when I run out of those. And the whole wide world opened up. Now I'd rather write than anything. Well, almost. There's a lot to be said for long naps, too.

Good writing requires some discipline, as we all know. I was never good at discipline before. But know what? It doesn't hurt a bit. Once in a while it's hard, and every word has to be given birth to. Ow. But mostly it flows, cause there are so many good words, you just never run out. And once in a great while, something writes itself. Really. It feels like I didn't do it at all; I just sat there and watched. Those things turn out to be the best. I can't explain it, it just happens.

Being a writer has some general rules, too. I was never good at rules. I break them. But the most important one I very seldom break. That one is: Write what you know. Do we know enough stuff to be good writers? Sure. If we don't, we can go read some books and add more. Writing what we know means writing true. I can dream up stories, but they have to have something true in them, something real that I know about myself. So they always do.

I heard of another rule, too, about editing and cutting our work. Boy, is that a hard one. That means throwing out some of those words you liked so much when you wrote them. I admit I don't follow that one very well, but I'm working on it. Sort of.

The most important rule, I guess, is that you've gotta love to write. If you don't love it, why do it? Writing isn't a job, it isn't a hobby, it isn't a therapy - even though it may be those things at some times. It's a life.

Well, this was going to be an essay on being a writer. I'm not sure it is. I think maybe it's a love letter to writing, from a cat.