29 December 2011

Why I Keep Writing

That makes me laugh - "why I keep writing". I haven't written in a long time, although there is a personal blog post somewhere, and that was last week? I think it was last week. Anyway - "why I keep writing"... I've been listening to Mur Lafferty's I Should Be Writing podcast, trying to convince myself that *I* should be writing. Of course.

I would say that my theatre has been taking up all my free time, but that would be a lie. It is taking a *lot* of my free time, but not all. I mainly come home from work (desk job, mind-numbing accts payable drudgery), have dinner and watch a movie (usually a documentary) and play a video game. Where's the writing time in that? Well, I suppose I could forego the movie and - if I wanted to be really hardcore, I could write and eat dinner at the same time (I've done it before).

Although I also have a spouse that deserves my attention - and that's where the movie-watching and dinner-eating come into play. I only have so much time before my brain turns into toothpaste, and family time is certainly important to me. I have a finite amount of time that I've convinced myself Other Things need my attention - my writing? My writing can be done later. Of course.

Yet, I'm blogging. My Bonny blog needs updating, my personal blog is probably getting the most attention because it's a nice brain-dump location. Not only that, but the several novels that I have "in progress" span nearly 10 years' worth of work and I don't even know if any of it is worth anything. I may end up trunking everything.

Yet, I'm still writing. I still want to work on my stories - well, one story in particular that still continues to poke me in the ear or eye every so often. I know there are some serious issues with the story itself (I'm going to need an eagle-eyed historian, for one), but I really like this story - still. Even after all these months...years? Yes, I think it's now officially been two years. How did that happen?

So, why do I keep writing? Even as sporadic as I do - I still want to tell a story. I would also like to have someone other than my spouse reading it. I need to be adored by the world...or at least, more folks who aren't my friends before reading my story. Once they've read my story, they can clamour for my friendship, if they like.

I should be writing. You should be too. Or doing something that fulfills you, because that's what it's all about.