The Curse of the Writer

            The curse of the writer is that you just have to keep writing. You just can’t stop. No, really, I mean it! The more you write, the more you have to write.

            I've heard accusations hurtled at J.K. Rowling saying that she’s just written her newest book because she wants more money, which is ridiculous. She wrote it because she’s a writer, so she writes on even when she no longer needs to.

            You see, the way it works is that you start off with an idea for a book. As you write that book, you come up with a great idea, character, or scenario that just won’t quite work for what you’re writing, so you put it aside. As you write, that idea grows and expands in the back of your mind until you have a whole new book waiting to be written! The worst part is that the number of books you plan to write grows exponentially.

            I actually started with a trilogy planned, although it’s not the trilogy I've written. This trilogy is waiting until I feel I'm experienced enough to write it and make it all that I hope it will be. Anyway, so that’s three books I started with living in my head. The first book I completed, To Slay a Dragon (working title), started as a school project that grew. By the time I was done writing it, I knew it was going to be a trilogy. So, I now had one book written and five more planned, bringing the total number of books in my head to six.

            While writing my second book, I brought back a character who’d had a cameo in my first book. I loved working with this character so much that I started sketching out the story of his life and wondering what kind of book it would make. As well as that, by the time I’d finished the second book, I’d also come up with a really cool idea for a stand-alone in my series (this is the one I'm currently working on). So, that’s two books written and six planned, totalling eight in my head.

            Moving on to the third book I was thinking that these ideas must surely die out soon, right? How wrong I was. First, my wife and I started a roleplay where we took turns writing our characters and the events going on around them. It was meant for fun, as well as an excellent writing exercise, but the more we wrote the more we realized that we were starting another book. Then, while I was throwing some minor characters into my third book, I was writing up the character backgrounds and discovered that one of them had a whole book there! Finally, just as I was finishing my third book, my brain started playing with some puns and spat out another book at me. That’s three books written and eight more planned for a grand total of eleven books.

            Better make that twelve because, less than a month into writing my fourth book, I started thinking it will need a sequel. I hate to think how many books I’ll have planned by the time I'm finished writing it!

            So, if you’re thinking of becoming a writer, think long and hard about it, because you’re getting yourself into a job that will never end. That’s probably the only regret I have. I view everything that has happened to me in my life as part of what led me to where I am today, but I think it’s fair to regret that I won’t live long enough to empty my imagination.

            To that end I must ask, has J.K. Rowling ever let on to exactly how Dumbledore and Flamel made the philosopher’s stone? I wouldn't mind some elixir of life.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.