Are you a writer?

New… Shiny… Distracting…

Do the above words describe the creative process?

These are your ideas: beautiful as a newborn, shiny as gold bars and eating up your brain space.

I understand. No, really I do. You see in the world of a writer, there are an INFINITE number of distractions from your writing. Many of them are in the world around you. In your pocket. In the browser window below. This article you’re reading. But the one distraction you cannot avoid is…

Your mind.

Dun dun DUNNNNNN.

So, I’m most certainly not here to tell or teach you how to control it. In fact, a writer’s mind can be focused but something always pops up. Maybe this isn’t everyone. But for me (and I know a fair few others) we write one idea and during that time we stumble across a mine shaft of shinier ideas.

My ideas hit me whenever and wherever. Just the other day I thought a great start to a novel would be the initial meeting between a master assassin and his unsuspecting contract. As the assassin holds the knife to his/her throat, the contract wakes up and stares into the assassin’s eyes, almost as cold as his heart. Suddenly, the assassin too has an epiphany. “You’re already dead. Your family wanted you out of the picture. How do you feel about a career in killing others?” With a silent nod, the contract agrees to the terms and the pair make off into the night. Thus starts the protagonist’s journey into becoming an assassin, while planning their own revenge on the side.

So my point? I don’t really have one. That’s the best part about this blog post… I’m just letting you know you’re not alone. I have yet to overcome this huge challenge. I have curbed it through excessive planning, but that is as close as I’ve come.

On a side note, Jefferson & The Magician’s Curse underwent its first reading by my lovely partner. Sadly for me, she wore a poker face for the whole thing (which lead me to believe she was forcing herself through it) but finally she gave me her verdict. She liked the story and characters (gave them an eight out of ten) and her only issue was she felt there wasn’t enough description (which I have always had an issue with balanced description). She gave my mechanics a five or six out of ten because she could tell when I had been writing while trying to stay awake and she wanted more description.

Still not as bad as I expected for a first draft. I now need her to ask questions about the things she didn’t understand and any gaps that I missed (because I know everything about it… it’s all in my head with the voices). Although a few things I will need to do are break it up into chapters as well as add in some more description. I need to get back into reading as well (it’s been too long) and I fear my writing mind may be ready to write, but the tools of the trade are a bit rusty. The good news is I have a ton of books to read that have come through in recent weeks (my obsession with Barnes & Noble’s Collectible Editions runs too deep) and any of them would simply sharpen my skills a bit. 

Although there is something odd about knowing you have written something longer than some popular fiction. I did a few quick word count searches on the internet and found out where my book sits. This list includes some of my favourite novels as well!

• Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone (J.K. Rowling) = 76,944
• The Crystal Shard (R.A. Salvatore) = 86,000 (ish)
• The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien) = 95,022
• Jefferson & The Magician’s Curse (ME!) = 98,657
• Game of Thrones (George R.R. Martin) = 284,000 (ish)

So all in all, not too bad for my first completed book. Once I add in some description and cut some of the sections I wrote while only half awake, I should probably be sitting comfortably over 100k at least. But as always, it’s not the quantity, it’s the quality.

Anyway plot points have begun to rear their heads for Book Two, Jefferson & The Eternal Mana. Should be an interesting write considering I have some things to look back over. There may be an event or two pushed from the end of book one and into book two. I had an idea of how I wanted book one to end so I may go back and revisit that ending as I felt it would have been more powerful. We will see once I further edit book one. Anyway, what are you ladies and gents working on out there? How’s it going? I feel like I’ve already lost touch with many of you out there! Let me know what’s happening and I promise I’ll get back to you ASAP! After all, I have tomorrow off!