Addicted

I've been working on my second story since the launch of my first one, maybe a few weeks before that. So, March 21 I launched my very first book. It was just under 16k words. Today, I finished the first draft of my second story and it comes out to 23,567 words! That feels so amazing. Okay, so its not a novel, and people write much more than that all the time. But I did that in just two or three weeks.

And! I finished it. I have the tendency to not finish anything. It took me around a year to finish writing the first story. This is really big for me. I'm going to let this draft sit for a few days and take a break, give my mind a rest and come at it with fresh eyes.

Except I. Can't. Stop. Writing. I can't. I'm writing this post right now because I need to get the words out of me. I'm already 6,500 words into my third story (just word dumps) and I need to keep writing. My mind never stops. I fall asleep thinking of my characters and dream of what I'm going to write next.

The definition of addiction is: the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming... (dictionary.com)

I am addicted to writing. Though, I think I always had been. My grammar isn't perfect, and I don't know how to punctuate or form proper sentences, but the need and desire to get the story out of me has always been there. So I write. If I'm not writing, I'm building stories in my head and not thinking of much else. Being a writer is like having multiple personalities, but they never stop developing.

When I'm not writing, I miss my characters. I miss their lives and I want to know more about what they are going to do. Some people "outline" their plots. I don't know how to do that, so instead, I make a character in my head and just plop them down into a world. Sometimes, as in my current series, they quickly build their own lives and meet new people. Their lives take off and I have no idea where they are going or what they are going to say. I am my characters, in a way, because though I don't always agree with what they are doing, they are part of me.

Man, that feels good to get out. Even if no one reads my blogs, at least I've gotten the words out. I talk to much about my stories and make believe friends. I could go on forever about them, but I think I'll stop for now. Love you, whoever is reading this. Thank you for taking the time to read my words and live in my head for a moment.

Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash