Why We Write

Happy Blog Day Everyone!

Today, I want to spare a few words on why we write and what we hope to gain. I’ve been thinking about it the last couple of days. Before that though, it’s time for the weekly briefs.

Weekly Briefs

Harvey Duckman Presents…Volume 3

You didn’t think that just because Volume 2 was out and getting stellar reviews that this would be the end of it did you? Volume 3 is set for an October release, in what is proving to be a very packed month for my publisher. It will of course include a exclusive Brennan and Riz story, one that I’ll talk about that in detail after the book releases, in the coming weeks I may even share the title with you, and possibly moan about writing for a special Harvey Duckman release, but that’s all I’ll say for now.

Don’t forget, if you write Steampunk, Fantasy, Sci Fi or Horror (or a mix of the genres), then feel free to submit your work to this growing anthology! Click here for submission guidelines.

Crossing the Tees 2019

You’re probably tired of me going on about this, but I just want to bring as much attention to it as humanly possible, after all I owe everything to this competition. I promise that this will be the last time I mention it...till next year at least.

At the time I’m writing this, the final hours are ticking away to the competition deadline of Midnight 31st July, if you’re entering and haven’t handed in your entry yet, then don’t delay! If you’re reading this on August 1st...then better luck next year!
I finished my entry, going back to my original idea after having a moment of inspiration, though it was dwelling on it that led me to think of todays main presentation.

Creator Chaos

The next in our, All About Me, series is lined up, and it’s everyone’s favorite #vss365 tweeter, Kelvin Rodriguez! He will be at the mercy of whatever questions you want to ask, so please throw some good ones our way…

The latest episode of Creator Chaos is up now! Find it and please listen to it! I apologise if I kill your hearing with my version of Fly Me to the Moon... Coming soon, we’re hoping to do the first of our Guest Writer episodes featuring  some of the great writers out there!

A reminder of who the rest of Creator Chaos are:

Me – I don’t think I need to explain myself…

Kelvin Rodriguez – Fans and followers of the #vss365 tag will recognize this fellow and his creations, a master of the pun. He also has a mighty fine singing voice.

Zack Brooks – Author of the ‘Charlie the Cupid’ shorts and ‘The Trials of Amaford” novellas, the audio book version of ‘How Not To Be A Rogue’ is out now! This is a perfect chance to get in on this series, with a great narrator. A great guy and the defacto leader of our rabble.

Pete Hartog – Author of the novel Bloodlines, and currently working on its sequel. A great guy with a great taste in music and a fantastic name. He also has a blog you can find here, give it a read! He’s currently working on a sequel to Bloodlines.

Click here to listen to all the podcasts so far and look out for us on Spotify and Apples Music Service!

Vector Unit Regen Orphan’s War

Still on hiatus, but all being well I should be able to resume it September going forward. It’ll probably be a fortnightly release schedule but I do want to see this story finished.

To catch up on the series so far, click here!

Brief Mentions

Liking what you’re hearing about Brennan and Riz? Click here to look at the short story collection of their adventures so far!
Looking for newer stuff?

Click here to order ‘The Yeti in the Snow’, the standalone Brennan and Riz Christmas story. Only available on Kindle. It may be collected in a paperback version in the future.

Click here to order Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 1 which includes ‘A Walk Through The Pleasure Gardens’

Click here to order Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 2 which includes ‘The Black Cat on the Prowl’

Click here to find me on Goodreads

And now…time for our main feature presentation…

Why We Write

It’s a simple question isn’t it? Depending on the person who answers, it can also be a simple answer. I’ve seen questions like it doing the rounds on Twitter and other social media sites, and it’s used as a way to break the ice. So why am I talking about this? This week (as noted above) I finished my Crossing the Tees Short Story Contest 2019 entry, after a lot of deliberation on it. I had a plan that formed the first idea but during writing, it seemed to fall apart barely three hundred words in. I pressed on, trying the first tactic in my utility belt, blunt force writing. This is where I force myself to write, in the hopes that I either push aside whatever is blocking me, or find a groove where everything fits together. This, as you probably guessed, didn’t work.

Seeing that it wasn’t working and that what I was writing was terrible, I turned to my back up plan and started over. This quickly went the same way. I sat down and thought about why nothing was working. I looked again and realised I wasn’t feeling anything with what I had written down, and I was doing it simply because I had set myself the deadline to get the voluntary contest entry in. This was a commitment that I had taken on myself, on top of writing the Harvey Duckman shorts, and on top of writing A Boy and A Rat. The latter which is the highest priority of anything I should be working on.

The conclusion I drew was that the two previous ideas weren’t working for me because they weren’t me, not entirely.
This brings me back to the topic here, as I forcing these stories conflicted with why I write. I write to give life to the ideas in my head, letting them grow and develop. Writing also helps me deal with internal issues I have, as I’ve spoken about before in my post about comfort zones. By forcing myself to write these ideas, they clashed with my style and dragged my creativity down an abyss. This was proved when I switched gears and went to work on a chapter of A Boy and A Rat, where I was struggling to fill a page with the contest entries, with A Boy and A Rat, I blew through three pages in no short order.

I’ve seen some people who’s motivation to write seems to boil down to ‘make money’ believing themselves to be the next J.K. Rowling, who’ll get advances worth millions based on their first novel. Here’s something I learned, they’re called advances for a reason, they’re advances based on the books sales, and if the sales total to less then the advance....Well someone’s paying that back. I’m waffling off again.

Point is, write because you love writing, write because you want to share your story with the world. Doesn’t make a difference if you’re published or not, write what you want and nothing else. If you’re not having fun writing, then you’re doing it wrong. I did it wrong, and luckily because I realised it, I was able to come at one of the ideas from a different angle, making it more in line with me and what I want to write.

That’s all for this week, but I’ll be back again next time with more Folklore Tales. Till then, think abut why you write, and embrace it. Keep writing, your stories are important.