Every day I try to create a sense of balance in my writing life, a life that has gone beyond writing and now includes promotion. It is not always an even balance, but so far it is working pretty well, most days. It can be challenging to devote all the time and energy my new novel deserves while promoting A Better Life so it has the best chance of being successful. I am finding that these very different opportunities keep my life as a writer rich and rewarding, as long as I don’t make myself crazy.

I am attempting to write at least a thousand words a day of the new novel. My characters are beginning to open up to me more each time we are together. This phase of writing a story is the most exciting for me because it is full of so many moments of discovery.

Some days, a great deal of time is taken up with some aspect of promotion. Yesterday I spent a big chunk of the day formatting my paperback into an e-book. It wasn’t as complicated as formatting the print copy and it is now available on Amazon in both print and on Kindle.

I have a host of things to explore: writers’ conferences, a marketing course, book readings, book clubs, getting the novel into local, independent book stores, contests . . . Right now, though, I am getting back to the new story.

I have seen and read many articles over the years about how to know if you are a writer. Sometimes it seemed like a silly question and sometimes it was a serious one, when I was full of self-doubt. I know every writer has heard this before, that the most important thing you can do if you want to be a writer is to write. It is not always that simple, though. Many days it can be a struggle to find the right words, but somehow writing just took hold of me.

I write on scraps of paper, on napkins, on whatever is handy, though these days I usually have a notebook with me. I love to eavesdrop and try to get conversations as true as I can. I jot down phrases, sentences, thoughts and paragraphs, scenes that may become seeds of stories. Everything is important at that moment, crucial that I get it down.

My husband once left me for a couple of hours at The Dubliner, a bar on Market Street in Lowell that is now the Warp and Weft. I was in some kind of state and he didn’t question it. He asked how much time I wanted and when he came back to get me I was spent. We were surrounded by strangers, conversations and stories and I couldn’t bring myself to leave. I have no idea what I wrote that night, but it was important to me at the time. I wrote whatever I wrote because I had to.

I am not sure why I have not called myself a writer until recently; maybe it sounded pretentious or maybe I was waiting for that special moment that confirmed it. It was not when I published A Better Life or when I began this blog, or even when I received my first business cards a few days ago that say, Norma Murphy, Writer. My moment came last week when I was helping my granddaughter Leah with her homework. She had to come up with proper nouns for different categories and needed help with continents. I looked down and saw she had already filled in the category for “author” and there I was.

When I saw it I said something like, “Oh!” and she looked up at me and said, “Well you are.” I can officially call myself a writer now.