Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Benefits of Marrying a Writer

My husband is also a fulltime, stay-at-home writer. A lot of people ask, "So, how's that working for you?" My answer is, there are a lot more advantages than drawbacks. Here's my top ten list of advantages:

10) "I'm going down for coffee. Want me to get you a refill?"

9) No one in this house ever says, "Why don't you go out and get a real job?"

8) I never have to pick up the dry cleaning--because there isn't any. Our work wardrobes consist of sweats, jeans, T-shirts and occasionally, pajamas.

7) There's always someone around to brainstorm with or critique my work.

6) It's cost-efficient. We only have one color printer between us, for example. We can share reference books, an Internet connection and a P.O. box. We ride together to our writers' meetings. (Separate offices are a must, however.)

5) If I run out of paper, he probably has some. If he runs out of envelopes, I probably have some. If we both run out of stamps, we can walk to the post office together.

4) We always have someone to share a room with at writers' conferences. (This can also be a drawback; I sometimes miss the "slumber party" atmosphere of the old days.)

3) I have someone to share the good news with, someone who will celebrate with me unconditionally.

2) I have someone's shoulder to cry on when I get a rejection--someone who really understands!

1) Which brings me to the number-one benefit of having a writer spouse--mutual encouragement. Writing can be a lonely business, but when I have doubts, when I'm down or when I'm taking a big risk with my writing, my husband is always there to cheer me on, and I like to think I do the same for him.

Bonus Benefit: When I want to hang out all night with a group of hunky firefighters, he doesn't blink because it's "just research"!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL Kara, Just research, huh? ;-) Your hubby is a great guy - and I can imagine it's pretty cool having somebody that REALLY understands.

My husband has always thought he'd like to write - so he's good for plotting (even if he doesn't always get romance) He's more of the sci-fi kind of guy. Every time I try to brainstorm a problem with the romance, he's always - "throw another love interest in there." LOL. He's starting to finally get that doesn't work for me.

Kara Lennox said...

Tammy--
LOL--yeah, Harlequin isn't real big on love triangles. Years ago that was a mainstay of the genre. The girl always had to choose between the alpha guy and the beta guy. No matter how many I read, I was always hoping she'd choose the beta (the nice guy, the polite guy) but he always turned out to be a skunk. It took me a long time to figure out there was a pattern!