Writing Days-Where's the Sunshine?

So, I've been writing A LOT lately. Mostly fiction and the occasional poem, but even so, it's only when I get a stretch of words and sentences and paragraphs together without thinking about it that I feel warm inside, like my little light is glowing and it's all I can do to keep it "under a bushel".

I don't share enough of my fiction. I don't get enough honest opinions about the quality. I don't submit enough to even attempt at calling myself a "writer."

That leads me to the question of "who is a writer?" Is it someone who writes for a living, for enjoyment, or maybe on the off chance, for both? As for me, my day job does not make me feel particularly writerly but it does give me a certain amount of fodder for the imagination. Being a personal injury attorney really does give me a vast knowledge of the bizarre that most "writers" would envy. So...why can't I use it, the wealth of information regarding peculiar injuries, methods of injury, strange recoveries and medical procedures that I've gained over the last 10 years in my legal practice?

Is it a fear of violation of privacy that keeps me from doing it? No, it's not. I've thought a lot about this and after my sister urged me to write a novel from the point of view of a female attorney, I finally realized exactly WHY I haven't done it yet.

I DON'T FIND MY JOB ALL THAT EXCITING!! (and for the first time in 10 years, I can't understand why I don't)

So...I'm going to try and write "what I know" and see how that goes. Here is what I've gotten so far. And please, excuse me for my lack of reverence. I've seen it all, argued it all, and made good use of it all in my professional life. Now, it's time for me to see how it works in fiction. Here we go:


"Liability is about what you can prove. Give me a rear end collision or falling merchandise case and I'll show you what a jury can do with damages. Just don't give me a squirrely client who exaggerates his pain in hopes of a payday after slipping in a puddle of oil while walking from his car to the bathroom of the super lube.

Come one come all ye who are hurting with a story to tell. I am the one you can hire to write you into existence to correct the wrongs for everyone to see. Juries have always loved me, my short skirts and southern drawl , and my verdicts have provided proof that sometimes persuasion conquers all. Screw the evidence and open your checkbook. Progressive and Allstate don't have nothing on me."