A Writer Writes

     I have read and listened to a lot of writing advice. A lot of writing advice. It comes in many flavors, from “This is the best method,” to “There are many ways to write, each one valid.” The key bit of advice comes down to this: only writing is writing. Plotting is not writing. Planning is not writing. Thinking about it…is not writing


     The only thing that is writing is actually getting the words on the page. Most authors will acknowledge the helpfulness of having some kind of outline, but the best outline in the world is not a novel.


     This has, of course, application to many other areas of life. Thinking about exercise isn't exercise. Planning a routine isn't exercise. Only getting off your butt and moving around is exercise. Admittedly, in some cases and routines, staying on your butt or laying down and exercising is the method.


     This is great advice for me; I suffer from what they call on Writing Excuses "World Builder's Disease." World Builder's Disease is when you get so caught up in planning the world of your novel that you forget to actually write it. When I realized that my characters would not have the breath of life unless others read them, I decided it was time to do something about it and just write.


     I discovered something interesting. What came out of me was not the fantasy novel I've been working on, but an entirely different genre. A horror novel set in the modern world. I'm not sure where inside this came from, but I will finish it. This is the novel my mind needs to write before it can write anything else, so it is the novel I will write. And with taking that writer's chair and fulfilling my - well, to be honest - my dream, I can feel the rest of my writing in the back of my mind, surging forward and pressing on the portal that will bring it to life.


     In fact, I am going to cut this entry a little short (with apologies) and get back to novel writing. I recommend that you get up and move to a project that you've been procrastinating. Writing, exercising, learning to mambo or asking out that special someone. It's really the fear of failure that keeps us from starting and, in truth, failure is something to treasure, not to fear.