There is one thing about being a writer that is likely to rankle you as much as it does me.  You run into two people in the world of non-writers.  You run into the ones who are instantly awed by your ability to write and who say things like, "I am amazed you can write entire novels, because I can barely write an e-mail."  Then you run into the people who just seem to shrug when you tell them you write and you kind of expect that, were you able to read their minds, they expect that novels and books just fly out of your behind onto bookshelves.

I recently got into a discussion with someone who happened to be female.  She said that she found men who were "handy" to be particularly sexy.  This came up because she felt that my not having those skills might be a detriment to finding a girlfriend down the road.  She said she loved the fact that her current boyfriend knew how to use power tools and had recently redone his entire bathroom.  Now, for me, this seems like a colossal waste of time.  I could write several works of non-fiction and probably a few works of fiction in the time it would take me to redo a bathroom, plus, I would get no enjoyment out of it.  I have no joy working with power tools and with my inherent clumsiness, the power tools stand a very good likelihood of ending up embedded in a vital organ.  However, the part that really got my hackles up was that by not being interested in this, I was somehow lazy. 

To me, trying to prove to the world that my penis is not small by taking off my shirt and doing supposedly "manly" things with power tools does not prove that you are not lazy.  It means you are unable to do other things and need to show off to the world how great you look all sweaty, smelly and covered with things like sawdust and grease. Some workmen are really artists.  Those who make a living with their hands get all my respect because that is a tough career path and one I will never want to take.  But the people who have regular jobs and can afford to hire people who want to do those things for a living, and don't, so they can act more "manly" just boggle my mind.

Now it is time for me to toot my own horn.  The thing about being called lazy was that, I feel, it is inherently untrue.  In November of 2008 I write a 55,000 word novel in 25 days, averaging around 2,000 words a night.  This was in addition to doing my full-time job and still keeping up my quota of blogs I had to write every week for an online magazine out of the UK I wrote for at the time and writing a bi-weekly column here on Xomba.  Now to me, this stands head and shoulders above redoing a bathroom or, at the very least, stands at the same general shoulder and head level.  That is nothing to sneeze and and when Wonder Muffin can come to me and not only work a full-time job, redo his bathroom AND write a 55,000 word novel will I color myself impressed.

In 2009 I prepared two novels for publication.  One was published in April and I also managed the entire promotion and marketing of the books.  One was published in the late summer as an exclusive free eBook for people with G3 phones that actually got me noticed on a local TV station.  I also researched and wrote two books of non-fiction for two different publishers, did edits and rewrites on both, while still working the full-time job, starting two new blogs and writing for Examiner.com, covering local minor league baseball teams.  I also have written articles for travel magazines and prepared an hour-long presentation for a convention in Las Vegas about blogging for business.  Needless to say, this to me does not constitute laziness.  My writer friends shake their head at me and use words like "prolific."  My blogs now attract an average of 250-300 readers a day.  Do that math, that's a lot a people over a year's time.

The problem is that isn't quite as "manly" in the eyes of so many women as if I had built a deck on the back of a house somewhere.  To me, of course, I come home from working the job and I immediately set about writing articles and doing rewrites on novels or doing research for another book or writing story pitches or perhaps preparing outlines for a possible webisode.  That, to me, is more proper use of my time than trying any sort of self-repair or rehab.  However, in the primitive monkey minds that we all still have, it wasn't the guy who painted on the walls of the caves that were probably the most attractive to the cavemen females.  No, it was the big, grunting, bearded, hair, sweaty guy who could build things and bring down the mammoths.

So, intrepid writers, be prepared for this in your lives.  You will get respect, sure, but far more often you will just as likely not get any.  Too many people do not understand what goes into writing, creating, and doing something amazing or profound.  I am far from any of those things, just wanting to tell a good story, but even that is sneered at at times.  It may just make you shake your head.  Maybe we should write with our shirts off.  I think Hemingway did that and he was considered "manly."