Sorry for the bad pun*
If you have been reading my ramblings for a while now you will recall I have been trying to write a book, which if I am honest, has not been going well. The main problem was that I had become so out of practice I really didn’t know where to start. Each time I sat down to try and write something more than this blog my mind just kind of froze up. Writers block never used to be a problem for me so this was a new experience and for a long time I did not know how to deal with it.
This week I finally realised what the problem was, I had gotten so caught up in the process of writing a book that I had forgotten why I wrote in the first place, it was because I loved doing it. I spent so long doing research, character biographies and time lines that by the time I came round to actually writing the damn thing It had become a chore and not a pleasure.
When I was a teenager my method for putting pen to paper was a lot simpler. I’d have the idea , mull it over in my head until I had a rough plot and the frame of the main characters , then start writing. It was as simple as that. Character wise I found that I could start with a description and a few keywords for their personalities and they would grow from that, the plot would work in the same way. The more I wrote the story the more I knew where it was going, sure I had to make a few notes here and there but the story grew organically, almost like one long daydream.
So at the beginning of this week I decided that was exactly what I would do. I had a very rough plot for a pulpy Science Fiction story and the three main characters and over the last few days the story has grown from that.
By deciding to just write something for me I have rekindled my creative spark in a way I haven’t seen since I was a cocky teenager who thought he was going to be a world class novelist.
The thing I have realised is that writing should be about two things. The first is that is should be fun, It’s a hobby after all and if you take it to seriously then you loose why you do it. The second is that all the books and courses in the world can’t tell you how to write a book. What they can do is give you pointers but what you must do is find what works for you and go with that.
I’m pretty sure my novel will not win any awards. Nor is it as high concept as my “serious” book, but you know what, I’m sure as hell enjoying writing it.
*actually I’m not