I know...

"I'm now writing scenes that have been planned, in some cases, for a dozen years or even more," she (J.K. Rowling) wrote. "I don't think anyone who has not been in a similar situation can possibly know how this feels: I am alternately elated and overwrought. I both want, and don't want, to finish this book (don't worry, I will.)"

J.K. Rowling announced the name of her 7th and final Harry Potter book today - Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. In making the announcement on her website, she included the above quote and another about dreaming about her character. I can't say that I've ever dreamt about my characters before, so I know what she means when she says that until recently she had never done that.

The point I wanted to make is something that I discovered about 15 years ago that was a great encouragement to me. Writers all have pretty much the same mind. Our minds work relatively the same with respect to writing and to how we view the world. For non-writers, I would imagine there are some similarities, but since I am a writer, I'll just have to guess at how your brains work. When J.K. Rowling talks about writing, I'm right there - been there, done that.

I can't begin to understand how someone creates music. I look at notes on a page and to me, they are just dots. I know higher dots represent higher notes. I know about keys and accidentals and how to read music. But still, the dots don't translate into a tune in my head. Musicians, on the other hand, look at the dots and hear - HEAR - a tune in their heads. Imagine that! I can't even begin to wonder at such an amazing skill and I've been around music almost my entire life as both a singer and handbell player.

Linguists can not only translate words from another language instantaneously in their minds, but can respond and think in other languages. Again, this is a skill I do not possess. I imagine that Barry Bonds sees a baseball much better than you and I, that Michael Jordan can elevate and dunk like we only imagine doing, that Frank Gore sees holes in crowds of people the way my brother can find a perfect parking space with his eyes practically shut. These are skills that some people have and the rest of us can only imagine.

Writing, however, is a skill that everyone uses on an almost daily basis. Hi, how are you? I'm fine and you? Great. BRB. And all that stuff. We all write. We all communicate. So what sets a writer apart from Joe Schmoe on the street? What is the difference between you and, say, J.K. Rowling besides a bazillion dollars?

We are writers. We come from a long line of writers. We are mentally no different than Dante, or Chaucer, or Shakespeare, or Homer. We get an idea in our head, and like the musician, a story plays out before us in a flash. There is no concentration involved. There is barely any effort. This is just the way we view ideas - as stories. We do not choose to be this way. There is no test, no class you can take, no training for this ability. You are or you are not. And I suspect that there are just as many writers who are published as there are writers who are not published. And just as many people who have written a book who are not writers as there are people who have not written a book who are writers. Being a writer is not the same thing as being an author.

So to J.K. Rowling I say, "I know." I know what its like to sit up until the late hours of the morning crafting a scene that has been sitting in your mind since the mid 1980's. I know its frustrations and its pleasures; its addictive qualities and its destructive ones. I both want to finish and don't want to finish my book. I both love it and hate it at the same time. One minute its the greatest thing since sliced bread, the next its the biggest pile of fecal matter ever excreted by one human being. I know all of these things.

Now all I need to do is finish and make as much money as J.K. and we'll be practically the same person. ;)