• Forest for the Trees
  • THE FOREST FOR THE TREES is about writing, publishing and what makes writers tick. This blog is dedicated to the self loathing that afflicts most writers. A community of like-minded malcontents gather here. I post less frequently now, but hopefully with as much vitriol. Please join in! Gluttons for punishment can scroll through the archives.

    If I’ve learned one thing about writers, it’s this: we really are all alone. Thanks for reading. Love, Betsy

At Night We Ride Through Mansions of Glory In Suicide Machines

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When I was in college, I was in a writing group with three other students. When we graduated, one went to Martha’s Vineyard to write screenplays. One went to London to write plays. And one went to graduate school for English. Me? I took a job at Morgan Stanley pulling documents in their corporate library. I never took a single day to write. Always had a day job. Was not a free spirit. Far from it. I prefer structure, rules, guidelines, and deadlines. I’m compulsive, rigid, and driven.

Are you a free spirit?

5 Responses

  1. Yep. 100%. March to the beat of my own drummer. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

  2. “Are you a free spirit?”

    Not so much as I like to pretend or believe I am. What I’ve always wanted is a full kibble dish and a loose leash.

  3. “Are you a free spirit?”

    If traveling to the other side of the planet, to Africa, at the age of twenty made me a free spirit, than I was. When I got home, time-clocks ruled. No regrets either way.

  4. As I get older, I find I that am a perfectionist with a free spirit constantly trying to get out. Every now and then it does and it’s fun and unexpected. I’ve always been writing. Diagramming sentences was my favorite activity in English class.

  5. Yes. Not always the best way to be, but soar I do. My wife has never tried to tame that wild stallion and by her side I’ll happily stay.

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