On Writing

You would think that writing a novel while working full time as a software engineer would be difficult. At least, I hope you think that, because, for me, it is very difficult.

I want to write a certain amount each day (Stephen King says 2,000 words), but I find that plotting and character development take up a lot of time--time I'd have plenty of if I wasn't working at a job.

I've discovered this leads to large periods in which I do no writing, which I now realize is derived from an insidious form of writer's block. Although I have lots of ideas to write, I find I'm not writing any of them. At first I was baffled by this, but now I know that I'm not writing them because I don't like any of the ideas I have at the time.

I'm not fully blocked. I have ideas that I can write about. But something below my conscious level, my muse, doesn't like it and prevents me from writing. Again, Stephen King thinks that writing junk every day is fine, that the important part is to get in the habit of writing every day. But not me. Not my muse.

And I think it all goes back to my limited time. If I'm not writing something good, then why should I spend the time writing junk? I need that time for other things I'm doing in my life.

It's easy to come up with ideas. Ideas are in the ether, and they're all over the place. But good ideas...

I've titled this post On Writing because I found a lot of inspiration in Stephen King's book of that title. It is invaluable, and I suggest every writer, aspiring or best-selling, read it.

And in this post I wanted to contrast my experience with his. I think it works best to write 2,000 words every day when you are writing a "what if?" book--the kind he writes. Man, is he good at it. I think it's much easier for ideas to flow in a linear fashion.

But for me I need to spend a lot of time developing my ideas, making sure they're impactful and dramatic enough for a reader to be interested, and making sure the entire work is self-consistent.

Perhaps it's because I am writing a non-linear novel. It has time-travel in it. I know, it's done all the time, but there's a reason it's done all the time.

Perhaps it's because I'm just not as good at coming up with good ideas as I write on the fly. Stephen King always says he has no idea where his ideas come from. I say, "my muse" but that's equivalent to "no idea" to most people.

Of course, I think it's both.

Why did I choose to write a novel with time-travel as my first novel?