Would you say that writing is your passion, hobby, release, job, meaning of life or a combination of them? I was thinking recently, I do that from time to time, and I made an interesting observation. I suppose these observation holds more water if you see your writing as a hobby or passionate hobby as compared to it being your job. For me, writing is a passionate hobby that provides a much needed release. I'm not positive about this but I think it is safe to assume many of you share that boat with me.

This brings me back to my observation which is this - we can tell a lot about ourselves and others by their hobbies. I know, I set the world on fire with that one. I'm sure that observation has never been made until now. Anyway, let's look at this observation a little closer and maybe you will see the same thing I saw.

Everyone here knows I enjoy writing, talking about writing and writing about writing. The art and craft of writing has so many different aspects, parts and piece that it makes for a very intriguing topic. When you take those pieces and put them together you have a completed story. Be it good or bad is not important; what is important is that you put the pieces together. It was looking at things from this light that I made my connection. You see, I have two other hobbies that I truly enjoy and rank closely behind writing. They are wood working and cooking.

When you look at these three hobbies you may be able to draw some conclusions about me as a person but you can also draw connections between them. Take cooking for example. In order to truly put together a wonderful dish you must first get the right ingredients for that dish; however, those ingredients must compliment the others and combine with them to develop that aroma and taste. It is through practice, research and experimentation that you learn what ingredients you work best with and what dishes you best prepare. This almost sounds like finding your voice when writing and the genre that your voice matches with best don't you think?

What about wood working? The same holds true as above but with woodworking you must be precise with your measurements and cuts. You want the wood to be smooth and blemish free before you put that final coat of stain on it. You handle that project with gentle hands knowing that any imperfections will shine bright when you are finished so you work hard to make the shine bright, the corners square and the wood grain pronounced. Well now, this sounds just like the finishing work of our novels when we "polish it until it shines."

If you look closely at all three hobbies you will see that they are made up of many parts and aspects that we must combine in order to develop our finished product. With books we have the different parts of a story; with cooking we have the ingredients and with woodworking we have the tools and lumber. This is very interesting to me. I feel like I have been building to this point all my life. Why is that?

First off, I have loved woodworking since I was a child and that will never change but more to the point when I was young I really enjoyed putting puzzles together. It was always a thrill to see the overall picture come about from those little pieces. Be honest, how frustrated did you feel when a puzzle piece came up missing? I felt cheated in a way when that happened. When I stepped into my teenage years my enjoyment of putting puzzles together morphed into putting models together. I had dozens of them in my bedroom and with each one I attempted to get more detailed then the last. See the connection? See how things grew and morphed into this passionate hobby we call writing?

What do your hobbies say about you? What have they unleashed within you?