Yes it has been 6 years ago since the Muses started haunting me and I've come a long way. I have plotted all 5 books in my Ælemental series. I have written the first book, redrafted it and redrafted it again. I have started writing the second book. I have done a lot of research on fairy tales, rain forests, Mayans, Aztecs, Toltecs and Incas. I have learned a lot about writing, about rhythm and characters. I have read the most helpful books on writing and telling a good story. I've made drawings. I've invented an alien alphabet. I've kept this blog, started another one and released a tie-in called 'Impulse' on Twitter and Facebook.
But this is not so much about what I've done as what I'm no longer going to do.
I'm not going to:
- 'just' write a story
- write for a specific audience
- try to become the next J.K.Rowling
- write to become a millionaire
- perfect my story until my fingertips bleed
- rush redrafting because people want me to be finished
- include everything I find interesting
- cut out everything except the bare essentials
- have the characters 'come alive' and lead the story
- have the plot hi-jack the characters
- put gimmicks in the book to sell it
- feel bad about blogging, telling people and texting about writing the story
So, Anonymous? Get of my back and crawl back into that miserable little hole you came out of. I am glad for your 'criticism', but grow a pair and take credit for your complaints, cuz anyone can anonymously spout venom without taking the responsibility to use sound arguments.
Writing should be fun. You should not have to deal with pressure of performance. This is not an Olympic event. I'm writing a fictive tale, not a research paper on curing cancer or AIDS. The quality of my writing is not subject to any of the bullet points listed above, because for every rule there are exceptions. Books that break all rules become popular reads all the time. On the other side, I read crappy books all the time as well. I finish them too. I just don't pick up sequels if they're really not worth it. As a reader I can be judgmental. As a writer I cannot.
I have a story to tell and I need all my concentration to weave that tale well.
So, after money, audience, comparisons with other writers, fame, page counts and attractiveness to publishers have all imploded as motivators due to their lack of substance, I am left with the final (and most subtle until I find the next) hurdle to penning a good yarn: time. I need to write when I can write (Sorry, Mr. King, we're not all as 'dedicated' as you are), at the speed I feel is right and damn those (including myself) who bug me about when they get to hold a copy (Sorry Geoff, Ray, Marcus, Dawn and others, I know you all mean well). This is my brain child and I will deliver her when she's ready, even if it takes me another 6 years.
Ælemental, 12 years in the making. Simon was born back... as was his audience.
And blogging? I'll keep doing that anyway, because it's like therapy to a writer: it clears my head and holds a mirror in front of me, like right now. But that's a story for another time...
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