I looked at my writing log this morning and saw that I am coming up on 2 years of writing everyday. I tasked myself with this mission almost exactly two years ago. I started the log around Thanksgiving of 2018, made some entries, made one more entry on December 12th. Then, on January 1st, 2019, I was off to the races, logging at least 30 minutes of writing everyday until I hit a wall on April 3rd. I had worked up to 65 minutes up until that point. Throughout the year, there are peaks and valleys. There are periods of intense writing and periods of logging simply one minute, which translates to about a sentence of work. It’s been slow moving with this book–my first. It’s been 10 years since I conjured up the idea and made several attempts at it as a screenplay at first. Transitioning to novel form made the idea blossom.

For years, I wanted to complete an MFA in creative writing. Today, I’ve been learning all along. The book, my prose, and even my own thinking, has sharpened, expanded, and deepened. I am coming closer to achieving my goal of “writing the book I want to read.” My only audience is myself. That’s always been the goal. I would eventually attempt to publish this book, but I first want to prove to myself that I can write a book, and write a book well.

Execution has been the most difficult to accomplish. Developing a routine, a habit, a discipline, and then developing the craft in order to find the state of the story I’m most satisfied. It’s been challenging. Quite challenging.

Currently, I’m on draft 1.3 of this iteration. There have been numerous other drafts that have morphed together. You know how it goes. But this current draft is the most complete. I had to take several drafts in order to find the story. For the next book (which I already started), I outlined the whole thing. I’m definitely going to outline moving forward. Having a regimented process to discover the story before writing has saved me considerable time doing numerous vomit drafts. I do find it interesting how these two books have different processes, and I’m developing my own.

But, still focused on the first one. Trying not to get ahead of myself. The learning process has been enjoyable. And it’s fun to create for the sake of creation.