I just finished one phase of a small writing project and I am awash with naturally occurring dopamine. Okay, I am happy and relieved.
I was supposed to send it in On Friday, but I managed to finish it today. Tonight, really, and I am so happy, I feel like writing another 2000 words on my novel.
Technically, a novel is 50,000 words. If I write 2000 words a day, I could finish it in 25 days, theoretically.
My record was 12,000 words, back when I was younger. I wrote my first novel in two weeks. Well, not really. I wrote three chapters in the first six months, and as the deadline loomed, I quit my job and went on a white heat of writing until it was finished two weeks later. Deadlines does wonders to creative writing, I tell you, though the result may vary in its quality.
However, I am not a machine. It doesn't work that way, the 2000 words every day for 25 days. It never did. And forcefully imposing deadlines also doesn't really work.
If only I could treat myself like a machine, that would be fantastic. But I am not. No human is a machine. You can't run a compiler until all bugs are fixed - in some cases, this just makes problems bigger.
It takes a whole lot of planning and stuff when it comes to humans - the most complex of all creatures. And writers are simply demanding to be special by being stubbornly lazy.
Neil Gaiman was - and is - right. He had only three advice for writers, or wannabe writers:
1. Read.
2. Write.
3. Finish what you write.
There are currently two novels unfinished in my computer. Five comics/animation series, seven TV series, a few movies, etc. ALL unfinished. Thankfully, no one is actually waiting for these things. These are all original concepts I hope to make one day.
Whenever I finish any of them, I would always feel as if a weight has been lifted. As if I could fly. Like how I feel now. I hate the feeling of an impending doom with piling on writing tasks.
Some people talk about ideas for stories and how important they are. Some lazy bastards sometimes approach me and tell me they have the best of ideas, and they would do me a favour my telling me their ideas, so I could write them and sell it to KRU or something.
Because they've done the hard part, see? They sat alone, while taking a dump and they had an idea. All I had to do was write it.
Well, fuck you.
Everybody has ideas. I can go to any person on the street and get at least 10 great ideas for movies. I have more than enough ideas to last me a lifetime - thank God. The challenging part is writing them, executing them, finding a home for all the ideas.
Some ideas require money. Others, time. ALL require you to sit down, sometimes without pants on, in front of the computer and hammering on the keyboards for hours. KeyboardS, with an 's', plural, because whenever I go on a writing binge, I go through several of these.
Behind me are four keyboards which no longer have the white paint of the letters on them, because I wrote using them a lot. In the living room, are three or four more. That's how much writing I've done this year.
Around seven to eight keyboards' worth. Most of them missing the paint of the letters, while others are stuck with lots and lots of cigarette ashes. And other things. This keyboard I'm writing on right now? Half the paint of 'A' and 'O' is missing while the bottom half of 'T' is also gone.
The best keyboards are made by HP. The keys have such rich feedback. Tactile response at its best.
Anyway, I am just so happ
