One Year of Writing

Just a quick note to mark the occasion of the my made-up anniversary of beginning work on my book. It's a made-up anniversary because many ideas formed earlier, and there are even chunks of text still in the manuscript now that were written back in mid-2009.

But Memorial Day weekend last year stands out in my mind as a point when I became more earnest about the whole project. Here's an example: I started developing other characters beyond the protagonist that weekend. Maybe a better example: it was on June 1 a year ago that I drew the map of the land where the book takes place. I'd been rolling along for some time, but on that holiday weekend things started picking up. One year ago, the book started getting real in my mind.

Here's my little observational tidbit for today. And I'm sure the same idea has been expressed plenty of times before, because I think it's just true. I don't think writing every day ever gets easier. Not exactly. I think the difficulty gets more familiar. So to keep going, the challenge of it has to become like an old friend. Or a worthy opponent. The big hill on the running trail. Whatever image fits. Of course, the same can be said for numerous activities. Maintaining discipline in anything you do is always going to be hard. In the case of writing, you just have to sit down at the keyboard again and say, "Yep. Still difficult." And then start typing anyway.