Q&A: If You Weren't a Writer, What Would You Be?

Where would your bursting-at-the-seams creativity take you?

Source: Istock

I was in a funk the other day and I actually thought about quitting. What if I never wrote another word for publication? Who would care, besides me? And what would I do next in order to satisfy that craving to be creating something?

I always dabbled in writing, but all through my teen years I wanted to be an actress. I had small roles in a couple of school plays, but the truth is, I wasn’t very good. I wanted to be. I was good in front of my bedroom mirror but even an audience of one shut down my vocal cords and I couldn’t bring those lines to life, no matter how hard I tried to pretend my audience was sitting there naked.

I sang soprano, and as long as I sang in a group I was all right, but I could only sing solo in my empty house when no one was around.

Chronic, acute stage fright did me in.

I tried painting, but I wasn’t very good at that, either. I tried oils, then acrylics, then watercolor. I took classes. I never got better.

I moved on to pottery, throwing pots on a wheel and glazing them, and I loved it, but I couldn’t afford a wheel and a kiln of my own. I had to pay for studio space, and then we moved to the woods and I left it behind.

Looking back, I was always gravitating toward something to do that was creative. I crocheted, I did crewel work and macrame, I sewed our clothes and made curtains and tablecloths and quilts.

So what would I do if I gave up writing? Honestly, nothing comes to mind. I’m not inspired to go back to any of those things I’ve mentioned. When I was trying all of those things, I was always writing. I didn’t realize it could become my most important creative outlet until it became clear it was the only thing I was even remotely good at.

I did it, and it stuck.

So my question today is, if you stopped writing, for whatever reason, what would you be doing instead?

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