Price Tag

One of the most common things I say about my writing is 'I can't wait until I start making money so I can quit my job.'  Why do I say that?  Well, first and foremost because I don't actually like my day job.  I work at a registry, so I get people yelling at me all day because their documents aren't compliant with government policies, because there are fines on their account they weren't aware of, or because they want me to do something that I just cannot do.

It can get frustrating at times, and when I find myself angry and annoyed, the thought that comes time mind first is: 'I could be writing'.

The thing is, though, writing isn't exactly a guarantee.  And even if it were -- even if I could have someone tell me that as soon as I submit something I will be published -- that doesn't necessarily mean that the money I do make off of my writing will be enough to not have to work a day job.

I know that.  I am aware of the facts of the writing world.  Of course, my dream is to not just get published, but to also have my book made into a movie.  One that does quite well in the box office and earns me a lot of money.

Despite all of that, though, that's not why I write.  When I'm getting those words down on paper, my thoughts aren't on how much those words are going to make me.  It couldn't be, because then I wouldn't be writing what the story deserved.  I would be writing what I thought would sell, and that's just not how I operate as a writer.

No, there's something in me that makes me want to keep writing.  I'm not happy unless I'm writing/editing (and able to complain about it).  This is what I want to do with my life, not because it could make me money, but because I want to be someone that effects the lives of others.  I want to be the name on the cover of the book that people love.  I want to have my website bookmarked under 'favourite authors'.  Hell, I want to write something that pisses someone off so much that they throw their book across the room.  Only to go pick it up a few minutes later and keep reading.

Because, no matter what I say about wanting to make money off of my writing, the truth of the matter is whether or not I get paid for it, I want to keep writing.  If I were stranded on a desert island, I would still be writing down everything I could, whether it be on the sand, or with makeshift tools that allowed me only to etch the words (or pictures) into the walls of a cave.

This is what I want to do.  No matter how successful I am.  No matter how many people tell me I shouldn't or can't.  I'm a writer, and I can't stop the words that form in my head.  I have to write them down.  I have to tell my stories.

While I do hope to one day have a price tag on my books, I will never place one on my writing.

What are your dreams and goals for writing?

The Cup Runneth Over (Day 4)

I tend to get a lot of ideas for books. Okay, more like for series of books. I've never managed to write a stand alone book before, and I doubt I'll ever figure out how to do it. The truth is that my ideas tend to be too big for a single book. And I don't mean a little too big. I mean these grand plans that if I tried to shove in to a single book would end up so long that it could be called an epic fantasy. Except it wouldn't be a fantasy.

Anyway, lets just say that my brain doesn't allow me to think in single book terms, and I've learned to deal with it.

The point of this blog, though, isn't about how big of a book I write, but rather how many ideas I have.

See, I bought a notebook last year that I dubbed my 'Shiny New Idea Book' and I started writing all of the ideas I have for novels in it. There are some that are really old, but most are brand new ideas that I've thought of since last November. Today, I counted them.

Fifty. I have fifty ideas for, not just books, but series. And two of those have been from the last few days since nano started! I don't even want to tell you how many came from just before nano as I was planning.

I swear, I come up with more other ideas about books to write while I'm doing nano than any other time of the year. I spend months editing and don't come up with a single thing, but start planning or writing, and suddenly my brain is tossing out story ideas like I have all the time in the world to sit down and write them. Like my brain wants me to just keep writing first drafts all the time and never move on from it.

Of course, I'm not going to do that. First of all, first drafts don't get published. Especially not mine. They're pretty bad. Pandora had almost three quarters of it rewritten in it's first pass of editing, and I know there are parts that I'll want to fix again, because they're still not sitting quite right with me. And I don't even want to talk about all of the typos and spelling mistakes that I manage to get in my first drafts (I'm sure you've seen some of them, I don't tend to edit my blog posts, sorry).

This nano I've also had to put up with the fact that my brain is now tossing out ideas for books that I've written in the past and want to come back to at some point, but have been shelved for now. (Literally...I got a book shelf). I figured out that one of the first novels I've ever written was all wrong. The main character was too young, she should have been married, and her husband should have been the one getting blackmailed, not her father.

Because I have so much time to go and fix it now.

I'm not complaining, I promise. I know so many writers that honestly don't know what to write. They don't have any ideas. The thing is, at this point in my life, I'm not sure that I”ll ever have enough time to write all of the ideas I have.

Maybe I should look at adopting them out.

Do you have lots of ideas piling up waiting for your attention? How many books have you shelved that you want to get back to?

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Daily Word Count: 15,309

Total Word Count: 50,143