Why Do I Write?
I've been working on a draft of a book for the first time in five years, and it has caused me to reflect on why I'm doing this in the first place.
(I should note that this entire conversation has also been going on in therapy once a week, because there's a whole lot of emotions tied up in this, and I've got my own issues to deal with.)
Do I Not Have the Tools to Write?
Allow me to let you in on a shameful secret: I really have a hard time reading.
I have mental illnesses (plural) one of which includes OCD. And one of the medications I take to control these obsessions and compulsions has a side effect: it makes it so I can't obsess about ANYTHING, meaning I can't keep my attention up for a long time in any real direction.
Note: this has nothing to do with ADHD, which I also have. No, this is something specifically meant to tamp down my ability to concentrate on a long-term project--like reading a book.
I Have Completed a Draft!
I have posted about how my brain is working SO MUCH BETTER because of some new meds that have been treating my depression. And it's been great! I have been absolutely unable to write a book, or to even concentrate on anything long-term for years. But once I started my new meds I was sitting in my bed, scribbling book ideas and outlines in a notebook for two weeks--filling a brand new notebook full from start to finish.
And then I kinda drafted the book in a month.
Why Are All My Books Set in New Mexico?
Here's a thing you'll notice about my books: almost all have some connection to New Mexico.
My first book, On Second Thought, was set in a fictional town called Los Alamitos that is 100% just based off of Grants and I don't know why I didn't call it Grants.
Variant and Feedback, my first national books, were set somewhere in the Carson National Forest, up west of Taos and north of Espanola.
Blackout and Dead Zone have characters from New Mexico (the opening scene is also set at Glen Canyon Dam, which I'll come back to in a second).
Dark Energy's main character, Alice, had a grandma who lived on the Navajo reservation in scenic New Mexico.
And on and on until my current work-in-progress which takes place on a different planet, but the main character is from Albuquerque.
Fire in the Belly… It’s Back!
I've been telling everyone that I've been in retirement for the past five and a half years. I just haven't felt like writing. Previously on the blog I talked about how I write fulltime for a digital marketing agency, and that just kinda sapped the creativity out of me. I've described before I how just don't have "the fire in the belly" for writing that I used to have.
Well, I have been writing a LOT recently, and that fire is back.