When the world knows you’re a writer, you can expect a few questions:

What do you write?
Are you published?

These are the easy questions. The polite questions… Sometimes, if there is a match, there is even conversation.

Later, if the questioner is interested, they will ask another series of questions:

1 month later – What are you writing?
3 months – Have you been writing lately?
6 months – Do you still write?
9-12 months – {Awkward silence where writing question should be}

I could put this together into a clever flowchart, but really I should be writing and not making clever flowcharts. I also need to mow my grass, but that is another story.

I write these questions down because it’s been about a year since I’ve really done any serious writing, and I’ve noticed that I have entered the {Awkward silence where writing question should be} phase.

As a writer, I define myself by the work I produce. However, the sliding scale of these questions does tend to describe how others see my “being a writer”. For example, when I am writing a lot, the questions go up the scale all the way to “Are you published” (or some derivative). I suppose that i must talk a lot about my writing then to solicit questions like that. NWhen there are no questions, I have to admit I feel a bit depressed. Not because of the lack of questions but because I am silent on the subject of my creativity and my creations.

The simple solution is to write.

Truly, that’s all there is to it. The daily practice of writing. It isn’t easy to start back up, certainly not as easy as it is to stop. Yet, as with any human endeavor, the easy stuff really isn’t all that interesting. People only ask questions when you’ve done something hard, something they admire, or just tried your damned best to make something happen.

What are you writing?

Daniel Smith (aka @smithereensblog on Twitter) is running a great new Twitter contest:

Write your best example of witty wordplay in 140 characters or less and post it on Twitter to enter, then drop the link along with the full-text into the comments below (but be sure to read the 5 rules at the bottom of this post first!)

And because Daniel’s a great guy, I thought I’d help him out with a one-of-a-kind prize!

Let yourself be pampered by the poetic prowess of How Not To Write’s Jamie Grove, who has kindly offered to write an Ode to the winner and post it on his blog (along with a link to your blog if you have one.) Take a look at the one he wrote recently for James Chartrand at the Men With Pens blog, and let me know if this should remain filed here under awards or if I should create another category for cruel and unusual punishment. At Smithereens, the readers decide!

Ok, admittedly this is not much of a prize. After I wrote my Ode to Good King James Chartrand of Men with Pens, most of the comments agreed with Daniel’s statements above. However, there are plenty of other great prizes you may actually want.

Can You Put the Wit in Twitter? – Rules, Prizes and More!

P.S. The contest ends 7 pm EST on Wednesday June 18th so hurry!