Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner
Oct. 23rd, 2025 08:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)

Faraday, Oregon, seems to have a missing persons problem. Its problem is much worse.
Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 23, 2025 is:
litany \LIT-uh-nee\ noun
Litany usually refers to a long list of complaints, problems, etc. It can also refer to a sizable series or set, a lengthy recitation, a repetitive chant, or a particular kind of call-and-response prayer.
// Among the television critic’s litany of complaints about the new series is the anachronistic costume design.
Examples:
“Out spilled the litany of all the names of all the things you thought I still feared: A big, bad wolf, a two-headed snake, a balding hyena, a beast dropped from the sky, an earthquake, a devil with red bells around its neck. Your words were steady, steeped in the old stories, but my eyes flicked to the window, unafraid. I was too old for easy monsters.” — Raaza Jamshed, What Kept You?: Fiction, 2025
Did you know?
How do we love the word litany? Let us count the ways. We love its original 13th century meaning, still in use today, referring to a call-and-response prayer in which a series of lines are spoken alternately by a leader and a congregation. We love how litany has developed in the intervening centuries three figurative senses, and we love each of these as well: first, a sense meaning “repetitive chant”; next, the “lengthy recitation” sense owing to the repetitious—and sometimes interminable—nature of the original litany; and finally, an even broader sense referring to any sizeable series or set. Though litanies of this third sort tend to be unpleasant, we choose today to think of the loveliness found in the idea of “a litany of sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.”
A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.
In my post last week where I mentioned I had been writing “full-time” for a year and shared my favorite ten pieces from this past year, one commenter asked me about my overall experience with my writing career so far. I was going to reply to all his questions in a comment, but then I thought that it was worth a piece on its own.
Talking about how I’ve felt about my job this past year, how I feel as a writer, what’s different now compared to last year, I honestly have more to say about the whole thing than I realized. So thanks, Mike, for the content inspiration! I hope your questions get answered in the next few paragraphs.
First, more than anything, I’m grateful to be able to do this. I’ve been writing on the blog on and off (and with varied levels of uhhh.. talent) since 2018, and since the beginning I have always felt thankful to have such a fun, cool opportunity as what I like to call “doing whatever I want and writing about it.” It can be a struggle sometimes to come up with content when I’m feeling particularly unmotivated, but overall having the freedom to choose what kind of content I want to create is a huge thing that I’m very happy about it.
I feel so lucky to have a fun, stable, not physically demanding job. It’s a rare breed of job. And I have had other jobs, for what it’s worth, but turns out I like sitting at my laptop a lot more than just about anything else. Wonder where I get that from.
Beyond feeling grateful for the position itself, I also feel grateful to have dedicated readers and commenters. I am consistently amazed and surprised at how many of you comment such nice things, always encouraging me and supporting me. It means a lot! Of course, I love my haters, too, and have a collection of screenshots of many jackass comments before they get malleted, just to laugh at later on down the road. So thanks for being here, y’all, I couldn’t do it without you!
This past year of writing has taught me a lot about myself. Mainly that I’m depressed and sticking to a schedule is very difficult for me. This past year I was supposed to have a pretty solid writing schedule, and be in my “office” (in the church) for a set time to do things like blog posts and other writing endeavors. Well, turns out I don’t feel like doing that a lot of the time, so I didn’t.
I actually heavily slacked and neglected my responsibilities over the past year. There were many times where my dad would specifically ask me to contribute more pieces to the blog whilst he was busy traveling or on tour, and I would say no problem, I can do that. And then I’d only put out one piece that week. I would mean to do more, really I would! But I didn’t. And I did that kind of thing a lot.
I’ll get to it later. I’ll find the time to do it later. I’ll just post tomorrow, instead. It was a lot of that sort of thinking this past year. Turns out that that doesn’t make me feel good about myself or my work. I regret how much I didn’t do. I hope that moving forward, I do more, and most importantly, am more consistent. It’s good for my brain to be more consistent, yet harder to achieve. Plus I want to give y’all consistent content to look forward to!
One thing I was supposed to do this past year on top of doing blog posts, was to write creatively, as well. Guess what I didn’t do even once! That’s right, write anything fictional or personal or anything that wasn’t a blog post. Damn. Better luck this upcoming year, I guess!
My life lacks structure and intentionality and it turns out you need both to be a writer. Damn (again). Turns out I’m a procrastinator. Wonder where I get that issue from.
Anyways, all of this is to say that I’m disappointed in myself this past year and I hope to do better moving forward. And I hope to write creatively. That is my dream, after all. Following in footsteps and whatnot. You get the idea.
Aside from all that, this past year is the first time in my life where when people ask me “what do you do for work?” I say “I’m a writer.” Of course, that always leads to “what do you write?” and then “so do you write for a magazine or a newspaper orr..?” and I have noticed that it always always leads to, “so how do you make money from that?” I understand the curiosity, but I also find it to be a strange question.
I can honestly say I have never asked anyone how they make money from their work. If someone tells me they’re an artist, I don’t ask if that’s salary or hourly, or ask the Tik Tok content creator if that comes with benefits and PTO. I think unless the information is offered willingly, it’s best to leave it alone.
It’s important to note that I’m not ashamed about how much I get paid or in the way that I get paid for this job (and it does in fact come with benefits!), but the issue for me is that it feels like a question that is only asked of those in creative fields, and makes them feel lesser than other jobs. It’s feels demeaning, because it’s not like I’m asking every market analyst I come in contact with how they’re putting bread on the table. Why do I have to disclose my salary for you to take my profession seriously?
I guess it’s just been an interesting experience overall telling others that I’m a writer. I can’t say I really like it. I feel awkward every time I say it. I hope I get past that feeling eventually.
All in all, I obviously love being a writer and being able to share all my experiences, both good and bad, with you all. I hope to branch out in topics and push outside of my comfort zone of mainly just restaurant reviews. It’s just what comes easiest to me, so it’s what I do the most. But I’d like to be more varied moving forward.
I’m looking forward to this next year of writing. I feel like I finally understand myself and my craft better than I ever have before, and I’m glad y’all are on this journey with me. Cheers to the year ahead.
-AMS