AH: Fingernails

I want to announce up front that this is not the most profound or most beautiful post you'll ever read on the Charis Connection. But it may be the most honest.

You can judge a writer's progress on the work-in-progress by examining his/her fingernails.

I don't know what it is about fingernails that captivates most writers. I can be typing along, completely immersed in the story, and suddenly I stop to stare at--you guessed it, a fingernail. For some reason, that tiny sliver of white atop each finger possesses an extraordinary fascination. I study its curve, its condition, I feel for any rough spots--which must promptly be smoothed out with a file, emery board, the edge of the scotch tape dispenser, whatever I have on hand.

Please understand--I am not a particularly high maintenance woman. When the writing is going well, the fingernail fascination eases. But when words are coming like a breech baby, it's all I can do to stop staring at my hands. I'd sit on them, but then NO words would make it to the screen.

Since I am officially going public with this rarely-acknowledged bit of writer trivia, I thought I'd fill you in on a few nail details: thumb nails grow faster then the rest of the fingernails. Big toe nails grow faster then other toenails. Toe nails grow more slowly than fingernails. Nails do NOT continue to grow after death (contrary to all the rumors I heard in high school).

Years ago, before I even thought about writing as a career, I read an Erma Bombeck column in which she acknowledged that a hangnail could stop her creativity cold. Now I understand.

Did I mention that fingernails often play a role in various means of torture? Evil masterminds can insert sharp objects under the nails, remove the nails with pliers, chip a coat of nail polish--any of the above would render me useless for work.

Last week I had a perfect set of lovely half-moons, one above each finger. This week I have five perfect nails and five barely-there slivers--the result of overzealous filing because the words aren't coming easily. I still have a couple of weeks to go before I'm done with this first draft, so by the time you read this, I doubt I'll have any nails left.

That's okay. They do grow back--at the rate of one centimeter every 100 days.

Angela Hunt writes and files her nails in Florida. www.angelahuntbooks.com. Her latest book is The Novelist.