I AM A WRITER

Around about this time last week I got my first ever job as a freelance writer - 7 x 4.5 minute shows for broadcast.  Despite creating for broadcast in my day job, it felt like validation that I am in fact a real, authentic, genuine writer.  Up until the commission I had reassured myself I was ‘definitely a writer’ by staring at the word count (82,000) of my work in progress novel and the fact I write that on a MacBook.

It’s a miracle I got any writing work at all as there’s no proof of any recent scribings on this here blog, I’ve been so consumed with the novel that keeping this up-to-date just didn’t factor in. 

Having thought about it, I’ve decided it won’t hurt to get away from my page a night of ‘the book’ after work routine now and again.  So expect to see more posts than my usual once a year.  Exciting.

Grey

Glasgow is grey - the sky, the buildings, the Clyde. So similar in tone that they merge into one impenetrable mass on the skyline.

I shift myself over to the side of my desk in order to gain a better view of the outside world. The bright strobe lighting of the office makes the dullness outside even more striking.

The rain that is falling is so fine I have to squint to make it out on its journey from sky to ground or river. It has not yet been raining long enough for puddles to form on the pavement but the thick, heavy cloud that hangs in the sky indicates that these will be there soon enough. I watch the river dimple millions of times from the tiny drops of water joining its swaying mass.

My attention is focused on the view for so long that the screensaver pops onto my computer monitor from lack of any work being performed, I notice this but am not bothered enough to cease my staring. I become startled when the occasional boat or person splinters the scene.

There are few perks in the job that brings me to sit at this desk and look at this view. Many people assume when I tell them where I work that there is an element of glamour attached to the tasks I perform every day - these people are wrong. In my months at this desk, in this office, at this television station - it is only the view that I consider a perk.