How much time do I spend writing?

Image via WikipediaI get asked this question often.  I split my time between writing, and telling people about my writing.  All of the other time in my day is spent sleeping. 

Of course, I have to admit that I still have a day job.  But since that job requires me to write almost as much as my fiction writing, I feel I am still true to the sub title of this blog, "always writing".

I once said in an interview: "I'll stop learning when I'm dead.  I'll stop writing two weeks after that." I think young writers, I don't say new writers because I still am one of those, think that the only time you can write is when you're sitting in front of a computer or facing dead on with a blank pad of paper.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I write standing up, sitting down, laying down, in the shower, in the car, on the bus, in meetings at work, on the phone with my mother. I think I picked this habit up from my mother and sister, both professional artist.  They doodle, on EVERYTHING. Many of my childhood papers have marks on them that came from one of them looking at the material but seeing a blank space for some art. That was unsettling as a child, but now I understand it.

If you ask what I use to write with, my answer is: MY BRAIN.  The iPad or paper is what I use to communicate my writing.

-GP

Are writers type-cast?

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As I contemplate a new story, I wonder if I have to guide my imagination to stay within the murder mystery genre.  Or, as I prefer, can I write and publish whatever I darn well please?

What brings me to this fork in the road is the simple fact that I just came up with something that is not a murder mystery at all, but makes me do that smile.  I'm sure you know what I mean by that.  The smile that says that in your heart, you know it's a really good idea.  Because really, if you don't excited about the idea for the story when you first think of it, will the reader months later? 

If you accept the idea that we end up with better stories if we feel passionate about them, then why must I be labeled a mystery writer? As much as I enjoy thinking of new ways to kill people, I don't think I want to spend the rest of my life doing that.

It has LONG been a Hollywood curse, get on a successful TV show or a hit movie, and forget getting a job later as that's how you'll be known the rest of your life.  Are there exceptions? A few, but it was always a struggle.  Think of Jim Carey as both a comic actor and a serious actor. He's just the most recent example.  Who would have thought of Michael Keaton, from Mr Mom, to play the part of Batman?  And so here I am GP Aldrich, mystery writer, saying that I think I have a very different idea for a novel where... no one dies.

If I am type cast as a murder mystery writer, I better be allowed to throw in fluffy bunnies from time to time. Trust me when I say, I can write a murder mystery that involves fluffy bunnies.

I think if I could pick a pigeon hole for myself, I'd like to pick: "Deep plot, good strong characters, well told story", and that be it. No further describers.  Nothing that will stop you from picking up my book before you read what the story is about. Don't let the fluffy bunny on the cover stop you. Give me the chance to stretch the type of fiction you like, while I stretch my writing legs.

What do you think, are you type cast?

-GP