Writers Write, Right?

"Everyone has time to be a writer. Stop making excuses!"

Excuses, I haz them.

You'll notice I'm a little slack at getting these posts out. I originally wondered if starting a blog might be a bad idea, given that I don't get that much time to write anything these days. But screw it, I thought, let's do it anyway. There are words writing themselves in my head. Even if it takes me a while to get fingers to keyboard, it's worth having a place to put them down.

...all part of the writing process.

I've done the same with my other writing projects recently. The articles, the novel, the screenplays - they're all up there, bubbling away. Occasionally a little idea will rise to the surface and explode in a loud 'pop' of THAT WOULD BE AWESOME... at which point I try to write it down the next time I have an opportunity.

It might be written with pen. It might get saved on the mobile. It might go straight onto the laptop...


...or it might simply stay in my head, either to evolve into something that demands to be written down, or to fade away and be forgotten forever.

"But I'm BUSY!"

Life has been chaotic in the past few years. Aside from having two kids, my wife and I also raised a puppy, lost/gained two jobs, bought and sold three properties (with varying degrees of financial success/catastrophic failure) and moved 7 times in 5 years - the final leg of which was Australia to England.

And after the HEINOUS 26 HOUR FLIGHT WITH TWO TODDLERS WHICH SHALL NEVER BE SPOKEN OR THOUGHT OF AGAIN we were swept away in the whirlwind of setting up our lives from scratch - settling into a new town, introducing the eldest to nursery, trying to get the youngest to sleep in the room of creaking floorboards, changing cots to beds, toilet training, toilet untraining, getting sick, visiting doctors and hospitals, and, of course, full-time job hunting.

Crazy, right?

Yeah.

So, being a supposed writer, at what point during all this did I actually get time to write?

"You'll make time to write if you love it enough."

You're probably hoping I have a magic answer to that. One that propels thoughts into ink, through chaos onto paper... all in the blink of a child's nap.

I don't.

Because, honestly, I haven't done that much writing recently. At least not in the conventional sense.

My commute in Australia gave me 4 hours to myself every single day. It was absolutely what every writer who has a day job (which is most of us) needs. But even then I knew the limits. That my train of thought was dependent on the actual train. When it stopped, so did I.

I couldn't write at work. I couldn't write in the evening, during what little family time I had.

Since leaving that job and moving to England, I've been a full-time stay-at-home-but-also-looking-for-work-and-occasionally-interning Dad. Consequently the commute time has disappeared. Days are a lost cause and evenings have been spent constructing job applications instead of new worlds.

Of course, almost all writers have these issues. And many overcome them by either compromising their responsibilities or writing long into the night when everyone else has finally gone to sleep.

At which point there will be the odd Facebook or Twitter comment informing the rest of us that to be a writer you have to make sacrifices. And why aren't you making these sacrifices? Can you really call yourself a writer?

Well, yes, thanks, I can. And I sleep soundly doing so (baby allowing).

Because while I may not have been sitting down for hours on end, pouring forth my soul onto the page, it doesn't mean that the words haven't been battling for supremacy in my head. Or that the voices up there have been silenced by my fingers' inactivity. Or that worlds are crumbling beneath my laptop's darkened screen.

Just because you can't see the words, it doesn't mean they aren't being written.

"If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time (or tools) to write."

Obviously I'm not going to go toe-to-toe with Stephen King over this quote. Aside from the fact he'd kick my arse, I love his work. I also understand what he's saying.

You can't write unless you read. Or at least you can't write well. Reading improves writing, because the craft of writing is to produce something to read. Logical.

So how about: "Never trust anyone who writes more than they read"?

This popped up on my Twitter feed the other day. And such was the fire it stoked in my alleged non-writer's heart that it led me directly to finishing this blog post - which had been half written weeks ago and then abandoned for life responsibilities, in true fake-writer fashion.

I like to think that King's quote leaves room for the writer to breathe. That you need to HAVE read in order to write. You don't necessarily need to be struggling to do both at the same time.

But the other quote? Well, I don't know about you, but with an already pretty full life, when I'm (the obligatory) nipple deep in the writing of my fantasy epic, that's all I can concentrate on. It demands my attention. I'm unlikely to put it aside to continue reading Game of Thrones (however good that is) just because some quote tells me I have a quota to fill.

I think this is especially relevant in my life now, when I have so little time to do anything for myself. But even back when I was commuting and had 4 hours a day to myself - which was obviously enough time to both read AND write - I usually stuck to the latter. And why wouldn't I?

When your novel is sitting there begging to be written are you simply going to ignore it?

Call me an untrustworthy writer if you must, but I can never simply put my writing aside in order to fulfill my apparent writer's obligation for reading. I had an opportunity during that commute and wanted to use it to write. To write A LOT. For the entire 4 hours if possible.

Why?

Because I'm a writer, dipshit.

"Quotes"

The great line is that everyone thinks they can write. And thanks to our schools and teachers and patient parents, most of us can.

Yet some would have you believe that there are rules and reasons behind calling yourself a real writer. That you need to read more than you write. That you need to sacrifice sleep, or family, or huge swathes of life, in order to get the words down.

That in order to 'be' you have to 'do'.

Bullshit.

If I don't actually write every day, does this mean I'm not a writer? If I choose to spend some time with my family, or watch a movie, or play a video game, does this mean I'm not one either?

And when I DO sit down to write, and choose that over reading, does that mean I'm a bad writer?

No. No. No. NO.

N.O.

Hey, you with the rules and the regulations, flinging about all these quotes. You say you spent all last night writing. Great, well done. Was that with a pen and paper? No. On the laptop, right? Well in that case you're not a writer either. You're a TYPIST.

And you over there, the one with the book. You say you read more than you write? Brilliant, except that means you're wasting a shit-load of time reading other people's work instead of creating your own. Would a 'real' writer do that? No, you're a READER. Get lost. We don't want you in our non-writer's writing club.

"The End"

Of course, I jest. Ish.

My point is that there are many writers who wield these types of quotes and ridiculous requirements against other writers, usually as weapons to chasten and belittle others, and/or cement their position as a 'real' writer.

Consequently those writers just starting out may feel overwhelmed at just what they have to do to join the club. That they need to adapt their lives to suit, to sacrifice family or sleep or both in order to 'fit in'. And then there are the poor folk whose lives are undergoing times of chaos or stress, who might feel like charlatans by claiming they are still writers, even though they haven't hit a word target in days, weeks or months.

Sure, if you're a writer, then yes you must write. But let nobody dictate how you get there.

On paper. In your head. On mobiles, laptops, napkins or even sleeveless arms. Do it when you can. Do it sometimes when you can't. Through sleepless nights. In your lunch hour. On trains, buses or planes. In long stretches. In short moments. When the fancy takes you. Even if it doesn't.

Write then read. Read then write. Write instead of reading. Read instead of writing. Learn through reading and then write, or even visa versa.

Live your life. Enjoy those non-writing moments with friends or family, while travelling the world or the web, playing football or chess or video games, because it is ALL experience that you can use when you DO finally construct those words for others to see.

And, above all, feel free to call yourself a writer or whatever you damn well please. Just enjoy the craft however and whenever you can, and ignore those who seek to limit your understanding of what it is to actually BE a writer.

There are no rules to this game. Just go play and have fun.


(photo credit: akeg via photopin cc)