February 26, 2008
Perverse Pleasure
There is perverse pleasure to be a writer. I can sit here bang out my next rejection (kidding, kidding, Anyhoo…) talk on the phone, get my “day job” done all while in my ratty sweats, Dirk t-shirt and Minnie Mouse slippers.
(or god forbid days like yesterday wearing the same clothes I slept in while I rush between toilet hugging kiddos…ICK!)
I digress…there’s something for a writer’s life where you don’t have to be glamorous hell, you don’t have to be particularly kempt. I must admit, I don’t normally wear a lot of make-up anyway, so really slapping on a pair of jeans to schlep kid A to kid Z to school, doesn’t require a lot.
Yet, to me, when you see a writer portrayed in a movie or TV show, they’re either orthopedic sporting Jessica Fletcher-ish or uber-cool and uber-disturbed (Johnny Depp) Mort Rainey-ish.
Both have a style, well miss Flethcer, while you were working the cable knit cardigans and pearls, not so much. But Mort… I have always fantasized about having a place in the woods, or renting a beach house to finish up that dern book that is past due to this editor or that. But in reality, I am banging out a paragraph between soccer practices and band concerts and scouts. Not to mention, the commercial break during Idol wacthing on the Alphasmart or note taking sitting in line to pick up schlepped kiddo from school.
Not too terribly sexy, but again, garbed in my best house-frau apparel I take an odd and perverse pleasure in writing headboard thumping sex scenes while Guitar Hero and Spiro echo through the rooms.
Hell, maybe my warped can give ole Mort’s warped a run for the money… naw, I don’t like to garden…



Ah, well, I don’t wear makeup and have no style, lol…but I do write in my PJs, or something very comfy too.
As for Mort…authors are often portrayed as being neurotic, aren’t they? Wonder where they get that idea?
And as for Miss Fletcher…I probably shouldn’t admit it, but I wanted Jessica to die.
Yes, it’s true. Every time I happened to watch that because there was nothing else on, I wanted someone to kill her. She was a nosy little busybody, prying into other people’s murders—er, lives, and I wanted SO badly to see somebody throttle her.
LOL . . I never really watched the show much. My mother did some so I had it in my periphery but I always think of her when I think of writers for some reason.
I grew up hearing all the tales/antics of Hemingway from my English teacher mother and in the back of my head thought of writers that way too–an odd dichotomy, but it was well wedged into my head when I started writing. Then along comes Mort. I hafta say there are days when I can sooooo relate!
I wanted someone to kill her.
I remember Streep in that Rosanne movie, She Devil. She was flouting around in pinks, purples, silks and satins, looking all glamorous. You know, your typical Movie-style romance writer. I sat there remember me in my PJs and hair curlers banging out my story and I got an incredible urge to to slap her. How can anyone write and feel comfortable with all that “stuff” on?
I think it would be cool to be the writer Emma Thompson portrayed and direct the life of Will Farrell…
Tanya–YES! forgot about her. A Martinez as the pool boy/gardener–maybe that’s where my fantasy of have a cabana boy came from . . . . .
Lynn, I haven’t seen that movie yet. I bought it a while back, but it still has the wrapping on it. Sheesh!
Dennie you TOTALLY need to watch it. It’s the BEST MOVIE and a very um accurate portrayal of Us. Lynn I agree 100%…..esp if I had QL to be my secretary