Fictitious fears

My sister is a huge fiction fan. She devours novels, and whenever I need a recommendation, she does not disappoint. Her birthday is coming up and I've been trying to figure out a gift for her. Well, today I had the perfect opportunity to get her something wonderful. An author whom she enjoys was giving a talk at Postdoc U. I went to the talk and got an autographed copy of the poster from his talk. Not quite as good as a signed book, but I tried in vain to find his book at three different bookstores around campus! I hope she likes it.

The thing that surprised me about this was that I had planned this all out, and then when the time came to execute the plan, I froze. I felt embarrassed that I was getting him to sign the poster, rather than a book, like others were. I felt too starstruck to ask for an autograph. I could barely even talk when I got to the front of the line! Fortunately, the words "my sister is a huge fan" somehow came out of my mouth as I pulled the poster out, and he was happy to sign it for her. He was ridiculously down to earth, and, after I calmed down a bit, I even asked him a question about writing. I wondered how he balances writing with his other work, which is pretty draining also, and he was really humble in his response: "Its an evolving process" he said, "I try to do a little bit of both."

As I mulled it over on the bike ride home, I found this to be a good way of thinking about writing, trying to do a little bit. Maybe tomorrow I'll try to do a little bit. What about you? How do you think about your writing?

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