The magnitude of the challenge

Writing is a difficult business.

Firing up the laptop (or getting the notepad and pens out, or whatever) is easy enough. Ditching the procrastinatory (is that a word?) habits and putting 'black on white' is harder.

Harder still is repeating the process, day in, day out, for long enough to have something to work with.

Then the realisation will dawn, is all this worth it? Have I written anything of value? Am I wasting my time?

I've been to that difficult place on many occasions. The answer is that you have to find motivation of a very personal nature and what ever the objectives of your writing are they must be derived from yourself.

Define your own measure of success.

Writing is possible, it has been done for thousands of years by many different human beings.  Being a good writer is within every one's reach. if you want to be one, its up to you.

Storytelling and writing

First I wish everyone a merry Christmas and hope that the new year bodes well for you all.

I have had time to reflect on the reasons I am drawn to the world of books and writing in general.  I love to tell stories, I always have.  I used to write (rather badly), when I was six or seven, about fantastic worlds and even stranger characters... I lost my way somewhere around twelve or thirteen when the 'real world' crept into my life and I stopped writing for a while.

But who wants to live in the real world anyway? Next thing would be to 'grow up.' I have absolutely no intention of doing either!

So storytelling is something I have always done. It is about plot and time and 'story arcs'. Its about the three Acts to any story; 'Setup', 'Complication' and 'Resolution'.  Its about structure and timing.  It does not have to be written down.  Every human society in the history of our species has had storytellers doing their bit to enrich the lives of their fellows.

Good writing is more than just an implementation of storytelling. A writer has to think of which words to use, how do they sound (Poetry is especially concerned with this aspect) and how do they look on the page / screen.  Also writers need to have a diverse vocabulary and understand what words can mean and how their meaning can be applied to bring the story to life.

In my teens I was involved with role playing games, as a player but also as a writer and games master (referee). Writing and story telling go together, they are complementary skills. I did not really appreciate how writing in itself is so difficult to get absolutely spot on. It is much more of a challenge than just talking round a camp fire, but maybe less so than performing on stage?

These days with the advent of on line gaming there are many more outlets for both storytelling and creative writing. That is another topic in itself.

So better get back to the books. One thing is absolutely certain. Books don't write themselves!