Hello Carteret Writers Group!

As we, the new set of volunteers, take the reins (or the helm, if you prefer a boating term,
Carteretians), we are pondering many questions that run the gamut from minor to profound.
One of these questions, I’d like to pose to you:
Is writing a hobby?

Writing as a hobby is a topic that has come up a couple of times in my sphere recently; it is a
topic that has certainly come up in my sphere before, too. For some reason, when I hear that
word “hobby,” it always catches me. For a moment, I don’t hear the next thing being said; I don’t
notice the next commercial on the television. I am too busy thinking about whether that word
“hobby” best explains my relationship with writing.

A hobby is an activity that someone does regularly in their leisure time for pleasure. The
word derives from some old root words, back in the Middle Ages, that related to small horses or
horses made into toys. It evolved to mean something to which one devotes him/her/themself or
“a favorite pastime.”

But I don’t write for fun.

First, let me explain to you how writing has figured in my life. When I was seven, I wrote my
first book of poems, which were all about Fall: “Ghosts come out / and then go in. / It’s
Halloween night / and the fun begins.” In my teens, at West Carteret High School, I enjoyed my

first Creative Writing class with Melanie Darden who gave me an award for always working to
find the “perfect” word or phrasing in my own work and for helping others work with their writing.
Then, I majored in English as an undergraduate at UNC-CH, but I would have majored in
Creative Writing if they had offered that major back then. I minored in it instead. I honestly
looked forward to every Creative Writing class and assignment, every workshop in which my
heart would pound while my peers discussed my newest creation, and every time I faced yet
another blank page.

In that culture of writing and creativity, guest speakers regularly visited Chapel Hill; and they
often spoke of writing as both a passion and a skill that had to be practiced. Some of them
recommended regimented schedules: writing 2-8 hours per day. Some of them suggested
writing 500 words per day. Some of them posited trying to write based on various exercises
and/or prompts to encourage your writing practice to push outside its normal routines.
As an undergraduate trying to maintain my GPA, I definitely didn’t have 2-8 hours to devote
to writing. While my course work most likely forced me to write at least 500 words per day, it
wasn’t always the creative type of writing. Later in life, after starting a career in teaching and
after having children, sometimes writing figured very little in my schedule. However, at some
point, when my daughters were in daycare (roughly 2007), I took a writing class via
correspondence. I started writing my first novel when my oldest daughter was six. Then, in
2015, I started an online program to earn my Master’s Degree in Creative Writing; and I finished
the rough draft of that first novel.

The way I write seems unlike the way I think of hobbies. My actions seem more in line with
how I think of how someone does something like yoga.

In yoga, you must diligently pay attention. You must consider questions like, Am I matching
my breath to my movements? Can I open this pose even more in my next exhale? You monitor
your progress towards personal goals, and you might even seek a teacher to learn something
new that you can’t learn alone or without guidance.

Yoga, in the fashion explained above, is a practice. There is a difference between “doing” a
yoga class and practicing yoga. There is also a difference in writing in your leisure time–writing
as a hobby–and practicing writing.

I find I practice writing as often as I can; I find myself making time for it. I do it when it’s not
convenient—midnight on a work night, in the parking lot when I really need to get my butt
somewhere, at the beach for the whole hour in which I had planned to walk or swim. Writing
actually gets in the way of my leisure time; writing is my fourth child (I will consider it my only-
and my favorite-son) who needs my hand for guidance and needs my embrace for growth.

Writing, for me, is a practice to which I am devoted. Sometimes it exhausts me, but it is
metaphysically a part of my being.

Some of you may ride that writing horse for a hobby, though. To you, I say, Have fun! I
dabble with plants for a hobby while most of my neighbors diligently practice gardening for
sustenance and self-sufficiency. As has been my philosophy for many years now: Writing is the
food of my life!

The Board and I look forward to finding the many ways we relate and differ, and we look
forward to writing with you in play and in practice. Namaste.