The Need to Write

This year I started writing a novel. Before starting my novel, I read a lot about how to prepare to write. Books and articles about creating outlines, developing characters, when to use "its" vs "it's" and so on. Almost all of them had at least one thing in common, to be a better writer, write. Write every day.

That is great advice, and not just for writing. Want to be a better programmer, write code every day. Want to be a better martial artist, practice every day. Seems pretty simple advice.

Before I started work on the novel, I would write a lot. Stuff like technical documents, game contents for MUDs and background stories for RPG. It was always a by product of whatever else I was doing at the time, so it never took center stage. Working on a book has changed that.

Now I write every day. It's not so much a choice as a need. The more I write, the more I want to write. The more ideas I have, the more stories spin off of them. Seems like a good idea. Especially if I want to write a book.

Actually, it is pretty good. I'm enjoying the hell out of it.

There is a downside to it though. It can be a distraction. It can pull away from the time I should be working on the book. To avoid that, I have a time set aside when I work only on the book each day. So far it has been working well, and most of the time when I want to write something, it is about the book, which works out even better.

For anything that doesn't belong to the work on the book, the ideas go into there separate document. Some of it might end up here.

The system is not as organized as I'd like, which at some point I'll need to address, but for now it serves its main purpose. And that is to let me express the idea so I can go back to bed. Which I think I'll do now.