How and Why of Writer

As you might have guessed, I've written a lot of stuff. Some of it is for sale, some of it is free to read (either on my other blog or my AO3 account). By my best guess, that's about sixty percent of everything I've done. Several computer implosions have done for the rest, I'm afraid.

Right now, I am procrastinating on starting the last chapter of my current novel-in-progress. Procrastination is one of the realms in which I live. Mix that with a side of executive dysfunction and it's amazing I get anything done at all.

I'm mostly doing this because the scheduling site I was using has decided to die on me and not work properly. Again. You've probably all figured out how to trawl through my archives, anyway. But since I'm here, I might as well give some 'how' and 'why' from my point of view. Starting with...

Why I'm a writer.

For me, writing is a compulsion. As far back as I can remember, I was making up stories. I was a single child and a social outcast, so my imagination got lots of exercise. Of course, being sick and unable to run about 90% of the time probably helped with that. Well. As near as being so regularly under the influence of bronchitis that physical activity is a rarity can help anyone.

Surprising for most people, I didn't read a lot. I was into comics and not a lot of anything else until I was in High School. I would read if I had to for homework, but I didn't much see the point. Not until my mother, who worried about me, got me a copy of The Neverending Story. I literally loved that book to pieces.

Thereafter, with the additional help of Sir Terry Pratchett and Lois McMaster Bujold, I was voracious. The difference between books you have to read in school and books you discover is vast and thrilling. And so were my choices.

I always made up stories. During primary and secondary school, it seemed that the creative writing assignments seemed to match up precisely with whatever was going through my head at the time. When I moved on to University... those assignments were gone. That was when I really started working on stories to suit myself.

I can't go a day without writing something. Be it fanfic, novel, or some little snippet inspired by someone else's rant on Tumblr. I have to put words down.

So I might as well try to make some money out of it.

As for how I write?

Well... that's something I rarely think of. I go through so many draughts in my head before I put anything down that I lose count. I play with scenarios in my mind whenever I'm up to anything more mundane. I write when I'm driving. I write when I'm a passenger. I especially write when I'm waiting for my order at a restaurant. There's nothing like a small notebook and an evil cackle to step up service.

I've been doing this so long that it's like breathing. Or keeping a heart beating. It's so automatic that it's a reflex. I can, have, and will write in tiny notebooks, on scrap paper, and especially in word processing programs. Though I never formally learned how to type, I can be fairly fast with it.

It takes me roughly half an hour -discounting distractions- to write five hundred words. And I try to stick to that because my wrists are cursed. Too much vigorous activity there and I'm in pain and in bracers for the rest of the day. Which makes doing anything else an absolute pain.

My best advice for anyone who "wants to write"... is to sit down and do it. There's no magic formula for being a writer. No breakfast of inspiration[1]. No set routine to do to make the next bestseller come out. Just think of an idea. Write it down. Expand on it. Think up twists and turns. And just keep going until you reach the end.

Doing a set number of words a day, or setting yourself a goal, is excellent for writing a book. Most often, you reach your word count right in the middle of an interesting concept and then you spend the rest of your intervening time polishing what you want to write next.

I've found that my daily flash-fiction helps beat the writer's block. It's a warm-up exercise for the brain. Someone has given you this idea. Go with it. Run it in a strange and interesting direction. Then I turn to my WIP and have at it until I reach my limit.

And after lunch, I generally write to entertain myself. Slowly. And with care for my poor wrists.

If you have any writer/author questions for me, don't hesitate to ask them below. I might get something else to say out of it.

[1] In fact, my meals generally run on a pattern so I don't have to think about what to eat.

[Image (C) Canstockphoto.com]