What Charlaine Harris Reminded Me About Fun

Last summer I briefly met Charlaine Harris, creator of the Sookie Stackhouse novels (see also HBO series True Blood) at the Anhinga Writer's Conference in Florida, where she was the featured speaker. She was a delightful speaker and, while she signed a book of mine, asked me what I was working on. I mumbled something about this little mystery I was writing and she smiled and said, "Well, don't give up. Don't ever give up." It was a nice encouragement from a woman who had well over 100 people in the autograph line behind me.

So when I snagged the recent issue of Writer's Digest, I was delighted to see an interview with her. And the one thing that kept jumping out at me in her answers was the fun she has in writing. She mentioned it a few times, I believe.

It reminded me that I often drain the joy out of my writing by stressing too much about it. I must write today or I'm not a serious writer. I must make this chapter sing. I must.... It goes on and on. Yet one of the main reasons I write is because I enjoy it. I love those golden moments when I can barely keep up with the ideas and words that are flowing out of my head. When I look up and realize I've been in the coffee shop for three hours and they've completely flipped their clientele.

I need to keep remembering why I do what I do on this journey.
What about you?