actually finish writing a book

Lately, I’ve been reading a lot. The more I read, the more incapable of writing a good book I feel. Actually, I know I can write, but I don’t know if I have a story worth telling yet. I used to think age didn’t matter in writing, and now I feel like I want to wait till I have some more experience before I tackle a big project like this.

On a bright note, though, I firmly believe that all this reading I’m doing is preparing me for writing a book. I’m being exposed to different writing styles, ideas, and vocabulary.

And what will this book be about? Don’t ask. I have new ideas constantly. I faithfully write them down, but I never do anything with them.

I got another idea today! That’s not really very amazing, since I have at least fifty half-baked ideas residing in my “Everything I’m Not Working On Right Now” folder. But I’m all inspired, as usual, to at least get my ideas for this book written out before they go away. I don’t have much free time today…I might do it tonight after work, or tomorrow before work…or tomorrow after work…hm. But not Sunday afternoon! That’s reserved for another goal (See my goal to memorize 100 chapters of the Bible. Sunday is my review day, since yesterday didn’t work out.)

I am so proud of myself for keeping up on these goals. I love 43things!

Well, I’ve had lots of new ideas, but nothing’s been carried out. I have the feeling this is a goal I need to start working on after I do a lot of my other time-consuming goals. Writing a book is a time-demanding thing. So, I have all of my ideas in various lists and files in a folder on my computer titled “Everything I’m Not Working On Right Now”.

Besides, I’m writing enough papers as it is, being in school full time. I’ll probably start seriously on this next year when I’ve finished up a few more goals.

...so the rather wonderful nanowrimo turned out to be exactly the impetus I needed to do this – I successfully managed to write 50,000 words in 30 days, and although the book isn’t finished, it’s very nearly there. and it’s not the sort of thing I ever thought I’d end up writing, but I’m sort of happy with it – ah, well, now I’m beginning to appreciate the concept of first drafts ;-)

http://www.nanowrimo.org has provided the necessary impetus for me to start doing this. so far it’s going well – basically, as the organiser says, there’s no motivator like a deadline, so 50,000 words in the month of november is a challenge that I couldn’t resist… and who knows, I may actually get something written!

There must be a million people who “want” to write a book, but how many can say they’ve written one? I noticed while working on “The Book” my original copyright was 2002. Guess I need to get busy and get it done.

My trouble is I like to start, but finishing? That’s another story.

My goal isn’t even to get the book published. I just want to say I’ve finished one. I get all these great ideas, and I write them down and save them on my computer in a file titled “ideas.txt”. Some people are better at the writing part of writing – others are better at coming up with ideas. I’m better with ideas. If you ever want to write a book but don’t know what to write about, I’ll give you some of my ideas for free. They’re just rotting on my computer now.