Ok, I’m going to use this blog to relate my experiences about writing.

I’m hoping that those words will add to the count of the million words I’m supposed to have to write before I get any good at writing.

I suppose the whole thing started when I was about 15, sitting alone in a chair in my grandparent’s garden with nothing to do but listen to all the strange voices in my head. Those voices told me stories and I translated the stories to paper. Not in a written form, but with sketches, maps, character descriptions and so. I used those to fuel my campaigns as a game master for D&D.

What I failed to understand then is that being a game master is not only about setup, but it’s about leading the characters through the story. I was a very lax (translate nice to players) master. I gave the players entirely too much freedom, which resulted in chaos and much frustration for me as I helplessly watched the players ruin my carefully planned story.

Now, step twenty years to about now. At the present time, I get a growing feeling of uselessness. I had dedicated a great chunk of my life confident in the idea that my life would serve some purpose.

Back when I was into research, whatever I did, however insignificant, would add up to what the whole community knew. In a sense, my life was useful. It’s a big comfort to feel useful even if you do uninteresting tasks.

When that didn’t work out, I turned to what I called at the time “mercenary work”. I was going to do things for the money and that would be fine. Well, ten years later, it turns out money’s not good enough for me. I have to find something more to do.

I’ve been listening to the WritingExcuses podcasts and listening to these three guys talking about the craft as they call it, and by listening to them, my inner voices came back to me. Sure, they never really left, but they had been kind of quiet for some time.

As they say – there is a time when one realizes “I can do this!”

So I gradually made a decision : I’m going to try it for real. I’ll start “small” with a simple setting and characters. No world-building for now, no big epic story. Ok, just a little worldbuilding, to keep the story interesting. My objective is to have something around 100 000 worlds by the end of next year. We’ll see by then if the writing is any good and if I’m able to write regularly.

More on the next…