Well, it appears that I have a reason to post a little bit earlier then Monday. I've finished the first draft on the Tesseracts project!
My goal was to write 500 words a day, but I've been averaging over 600 and that's only with about an hour to an hour and a half of writing time. The first day was the roughest. I had to pull and tease the words out of my brain, but the next day got easier, and then the next was easier, and so on and so on. I haven't written seriously since at least 5 years ago when I was part of a writing group. That group broke up, for various reasons, and it was only recently that I've found the drive to start writing again.
It probably helps that I have a job now that provides for my needs and I can afford to live on my own, without the distraction of roommates or parents. Don't get me wrong, I love my parents but it's hard to keep the writing flow going when you're suddenly interrupted to take out the trash. Another thing that helps is that I'm much less addicted to TV. When I was younger I spent way too much time just sitting and watching. In some ways it was useful as I was exposed to a wide range of stories in various genres, but it was all passive and not creative. My one saving grace is that I was also a voracious reader at the same time, devouring any and all books I could get my hands on. To this day most of my spare time is spent reading something; breaks and lunch at work, on the bus ride home, even during the commercials while watching TV :).
Speaking of reading I should mention that I purchased Wake by Robert J. Sawyer last night. It's the first book of a trilogy he is working on about the World Wide Web gaining consciousness. Now that I'm done the first draft I think I'll spend the rest of the day reading, and that's the first thing I want to dig into. The main reason for this is that the author will be at the Mississauga Literary Festival tomorrow, and I plan to attend. Partly to see him speak as I've seen him on television and on YouTube and he is a fascinating person, but also as an example for myself when I have to do the same thing.
A big part of writing is, unfortunately, public performance. A writer has to be ready to stand in front of a crowd and read his work. It's kind of cruel, to both the author and the audience, that people who spend a great deal of time alone crafting stories need to get up on a stage and perform in order to sell those stories. To be honest I've never been interested in listening to authors recite their works, I've always preferred to read them and hear them in my head with my own voice. As well, I don't like speaking in front of crowds of people I don't know. However, if I'm going to be a successful author I'm going to have to get over it and get on up there, and the first step in this is to see how others do it. I can learn by watching them and seeing what works and what falls flat so that when I step out on stage for the first time I'm prepared.
Well, so much for a short post saying I've finished the first draft :). I'm bringing my camera with me tomorrow so hopefully I'll have some photos to share from the Festival. Now, off to the books.
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