The Childhood Dream Job

The notebook in which I kicked off my current novel manuscript, which has since moved to an electronic format.

Adults like to ask children what they want to be when they grow up.

Little Leslie wanted to be a writer. (Remember the novel I wrote as a kid?)

And my parents would reply:

“And what else are you going to be?”

Fair and good question. In college, a writing professor said that less than 1 percent of all fiction writers make a living from novels and short stories alone. (He may have fabricated his statistic, but I know of few other than the topmost best-selling authors who do.)

I heard them. I found something I love to do in building FrogDog—and I’m writing as well. This blog is part of my writing work—and you readers and commenters make it as rewarding as I’d always hoped.

Also, one of my goals for 2013 is to finish a first draft of my first serious novel.

Oh, sure, I've gotten off track.

I’ve had stretches during which I didn’t write. Other commitments—mainly work, but sometimes personal—got in the way. Sometimes I didn’t notice how much time had passed since I put words on screen beyond drafting proposals and sending e-mail messages.

My life loses color when I don’t take the time to write.

I’m thankful I notice and make changes. (The most recent? Starting this blog.) When I pare away unnecessary obligations and treat my writing like I do my businesses or my fitness or any of my other top-tier life priorities, I become a happier, more fulfilled person.

How about you?

What did you want to be when you were a child? What appealed to you about the role back then? Has that dream influenced what you’re doing now? Have you found a way to incorporate what appealed to you about it into your life today?

And if not, should you?