Wannabe a writer?

Oh yes! I DO want to be a writer!

And I guess I am really, because I am writing all the time. Whether it is Squidoo lenses, blogging on here and on Squidtop or articles for SquidLog.

So why think about it today? I have been going through all my lenses, to make sure they are as good as I can get them, ready for someone to check them over when my Giant Squid application is considered. I have just been looking at my lens: wannabe a writer?

This has to be one of my favourite lenses. It was the first (and so far only) real book review I have done. I have published other book related lenses (Narnia and Top 10 Quotes from MASH) but wannabe a writer? is the only one I would call a review.

Once I got going on it and started looking for extracts to talk about on the lens, I realised I also had tips of my own to pass on and I must admit I had a lot of fun. Here's an extract from the lens:

Where else will you find such great advice on how to avoid Writer's Bottom, how to mop up that glass of wine you have just knocked over the keyboard and the top diets for fat scribes? This includes essential advice on how to lose weight extra quick, when you realise you have put on two stone while you have been glued to the PC and nothing fits and you have a launch party in a week's time!

I notice Wenham-Jones does not include Losing Weight on a Wheat-free Diet in her dieting tips though - I must send her the link - which is a lot less drastic than her suggestion that you deliberately give yourself salmonella poisoning.

And of course I felt some of my own personal office disasters were worth recounting as well:

Occupational hazards
I completely agree with Wenham-Jones' theory that "it is a scientific fact that the volume of liquid left in a receptacle is not in direct proportion to the amount that will spread all over your desk, soak every bit of paper in a five-metre radius and drip into anything electrical."

Tell me about it! It may only look like half an inch of red wine left in that glass but it's like a gallon when you knock it over. Oh, and although you may be able to save your keyboard if you spill wine, or in my case the rare occasion water, onto it - the trick is to turn the keyboard upside down IMMEDIATELY and run for the hair dryer. But if it is coke, (the liquid variety, NOT the powder) then you have no chance. That fizzing noise you hear is not the bubbles, it is the circuit board corroding!

But, thanks to not doing so much Lens promotion over the last six weeks (due to the small matter of having to make enough lenses to "go for Giant") wannabe a writer? has slipped down the rankings somewhat, so I am going to have to address that pretty soon.

I wonder if I should send the link to Jane Wenham-Jones, the author of wannabe a writer?