Go Write Something

by J. F. Lewis

Theoretically, I’m supposed to be writing about Little Green Note: Number Four, but I don’t want to, so NYAHH! 😉 (If you were really interested, it was “Make the Plot Work!” and my only real advice, is: Yeah, you should really do that).

The other night at a party, I had a conversation I wind up having a lot when people realize that I have a day job. They are shocked. Sometimes they exclaim, “But you’re novelist!” Other times they ask, “How do you find the time?” This dovetails nicely with another conversation I have a lot (also at parties or in training classes or standing outside of violin lessons). That conversation begins with some variation of “I wish I had the time to write a novel” with an occasional side of “Hey! Could you write it for me?”

Want to know a secret? I don’t have time to write either. Tonight, I want nothing more than to flip on my Xbox 360 and play Dead Space. I’ve been meaning to play beyond the first save point for over a year, but I just haven’t managed it yet. I’ve played several levels of LEGO Indiana Jones with my boys, but that was during their time. I’ve played a fair amount of Epic Mickey, but that was during family time too. Dead Space is creepy and first person shooter-y and… it’s something I can only play during *my* time.

I’d also like to be reading K. J. Parker’s most recent novel, THE HAMMER and… I am, but now that I’m on a deadline (and trying to write fast enough on my YA project to read a chapter a night to my boys at bedtime) I have a tendency to read it in the bathroom, unless I’m writing in there, too.

Janet (that’s my wonderful and insanely patient wife) and I tend to watch one TV show a night instead of the two we had time for previously. But you know what? As I type into the night and blank pages are filled with little black letters that make words and punctuation which help divide, shape, and convey thoughts, actions, and emotions… when I see the smiles on the faces of my sons at night and, yes, when I cash the checks my agent mails me… I’m having a blast.

So let me ask you a question. If you have a story to tell… if you have a desire to write… why the heck aren’t you writing right now? Go do it. I do.

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