I don’t write about my writing process often. I’ve shied away from analyzing it, perhaps afraid that analysis will chase away inspiration and passion. Nonetheless, I have begun to think on it now more than I have in the past because I have come to accept that I am a writer. Not someone who writes, but a writer. A poet. A storyteller. And I’m a writer who wants to write a novel. That dual realization has led me to explore my writing process: Know thyself and all that. Well, I’m working on getting to know this side of me, and this entry may help me reach a deeper understanding of who I am as a writer, which I hope will help me write a novel and maybe help a few people who read this entry learn more about themselves as writers.

I feel a bit Zen about my writing process. In my mind, writing is an avenue of communication by an otherwise silent aspect of self. If I, the conscious and critical I, think too much about it, the aspect stays quiet and shadowy – just out reach. If I relax and let the writer within rise up and pour out through my fingers, it’s damned remarkable what can appear on paper or a computer screen. It might be junk or not, but it’s true. True me. True creation. Just thinking about that truth, and feeling it, gives me a little shiver of wonder.

After my writer-within has awakened, spoken, and withdrawn to its quiet solitude, my conscious, every-day mind is left with something that likely needs polishing and critical editing. And that’s where craft comes into play. Skill is not soul, but skill and soul together work synergistically, so long as my critical editor is not allowed too much power to slash and rewrite. Balance is the key, the goal, and it’s not easy to maintain.

I’ve always been more of a mental sprinter than a long distance runner, and my writing reflects that. Short poems, flash fiction, a few longer short stories, and one partial novel from fourteen years ago – that’s what I’ve written. I don’t know if my inner writer has a novel to tell or just a long string of shorter works, but I do know that trying to force something like a novel is a bad idea. A long, boring, and technically proficient work would result. So, I need to experiment, to cajole my writer-within into trying to produce something longer than a mere seven thousand words. That’s my present goal and challenge, and I hope to chronicle here in my journal the process of getting my novel written. A public form of self-imposed accountability.

Tonight I will write a handful of words. They may be deleted tomorrow, but they will be a start on the path to a completed novel. So, please join me in encouraging my writer-within to rise to this challenge and produce something true that just happens to be a novel. And I will send encouraging thoughts to those of you embarking on your own writing challenges. To all of you writers and writers-to-be: Write true.