I am enjoying but at the same time wondering why I have never written a best selling novel about my various journeys. Well, the simple answer is that I am not a professional writer with connections to the publishing world where an editor would say "Oh, wow, can't wait for your manuscript about your trip through the UK! Send it to me right away!" That's not to put any blame on anyone else. Nope, if I had really had the guts, the passion, to get published, I could probably have been. Or at least have made a valiant attempt so that I could sit here now and say "I just don't have what it takes to be a writer." I can't say that. Many people who read my blogs or my e-mails say I am a wonderful writer. So did professors when I was slogging through my various degrees. No, I have what it takes to be a WRITER, I just don't have the drive to become a PUBLISHED writer. I wonder if I ever will.
As I read Gilbert's book, I think about my own journey to the UK last year. Much of it is on this blog. The difference between what she has written and what I have--so far--is that she writes about EVERYTHING. Every little minutiae, every conversation and observation. That's why her book is a few hundred pages and my blog is barely 50. And she writes about things that I would not really want to bare to the world. I like to stay in safely historical or impersonal terms. I keep my interior feelings and thoughts about people to myself. For the most part. What inspires me about her book, however, is that there are many things that I don't write about that I could, that I would probably enjoy writing about. If I would let myself :)
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