Why AM I Doing This? (18/11)
It’s a good question, and one I was asking myself all the way to work this morning. That’s right, for 20 solid minutes I kept myself entertained and self-flagellated with a question of almost existential properties. The question loses a lot of its depth and transcendent qualities when I define the “This” of the question, as “attempting to write a book in a month”.
I have written various things in my time, from succinct tweets (more than a few of them), through to rambly and long-winded point-making blog posts (not so many of them). The idea of a novel has always been a goal in the distance, a sort of holy grail, if I were to be Sir Galahad and happen to finally stay in that particular run-down castle. (Anyone else ever think the Grail knight story was kinda sorta not that different to “Psycho”? Maybe? Sorta? I might write about that another time) But November rolls around, and some mad MAD part of me throws down a gauntlet, declaring “50,000 words or bust!” and then expects that the (not so mad) rest of me will take this challenge and run with it. Which, I have to admit, this time I sort of have.
To date, this process has taught me a few things: 1) 50,000 words is a lot to write – more so when you are working full-time and have an otherwise-engaged brain. 2) My story is a lot more than 50,000 words. 3) I have ideas but I do not really know how to properly structure 50,000+ words of story. So WHY am I doing this? It’s a really good question, and it still stands even now, 14 hours from the first interrogation, but I’m getting close to an answer. Allow me to take you back a step…
A while back (over a year), I fell into some wonderful company as part of a theatre production. At this time, one of us was a published author, and myself and one other were keen authors-to-be. We made a funny sort of pact and began to meet regularly, to share writing and talk about the processes and techniques we employed. Personally, I did not hold up my end of the bargain, doing more talking than sharing of words. That was bad. Bad Nick. No biscuit.
And of the many ideas I shared with these two scribes, I have many that I made progress on and have not gone further with. But this…this is the one I have picked, a new, unchallenged train of thought. Is it because I’m currently inspired to write on it? Is it because it offers something the others didn’t? Are the others simply bad ideas? The answers are: Maybe, Yes, and No, respectively. But it’s also something they’ve never heard anything about other than…
“Would you feel comfortable talking openly with an insurance agent?”
So that is probably the best answer I can muster: I am doing this, to show my fellow writers that I can, to give them something exciting and new, and to repay them for all the glorious words they have shared. They will be receiving the full manuscript ahead of everyone else. And boy are there some words to be shared…
End of Day Word Count: 24,458. (A day’s gap? Really? No! Yeah okay, I’ll address that later…)
Thoughts In The Key Of N 
Sounds good Nick! Writing for joy is good too – if you feel it’s rewarding, that can be enough.
Definitely! I am enjoying the process, learning a lot and really getting a kick out of the sessions once I’m into them. The hard bit is often getting started – I can be so easily distracted by so many thing. But once I’m focused in on the scene unfolding…whooooooosh!