You can't die with an unfinished book. - Terry Pratchett

If you didn't know, I have been writing a book for over a year now. 

It all started just as a dizzy thought when I had fever (and not the cool kind of fever) last summer and after finishing a book from Sir Pratchett my brain suddenly started to work and produce stuff.

This writing, that grew from just something to do into a short story, into a novella has ended up in the size of a novel. Short one but still a novel. 

It is in a phase of getting feedback from friends who volunteered to test read it, making a few changes if needed and then finding a publisher (it's in English so not in Estonia). I don't know how the journey will continue for it. Will I get it published? Will it end up in Kindle self publishing or will I just convert it into pdf and post it on my blog some point? I don't know and while I would love to see it on paper, I could also accept any other outcome. Why? Because the journey has already been so awesome (and the journey is ongoing, next writing on the works already). 

I am not a published author (yet!?) but I do feel that I am a writer. I love to write and I write and this is good enough. I love to take my time in late evenings and just type in the peace and quiet or spend Friday evenings at home and play with my thoughts on the paper (actually on a screen) instead of getting drunk at a party. Way more fun and productive.

Also, it seems to me that when I have it ongoing, I am more sane. If I do not give a creative task to my brain to work on, it will turn creative with other things and it is not super good at it. There is good and bad creativity. Overthinking and worrying are examples of creativity gone bad and we do not want that, do we?

So here are some guidelines I use while I write.

1. Be a DM (not Damned Madman nor Direct Message)

I have been a DM (Dungeon Master) for more than ten years and I think I already know how to create a story and the world where it all happens. I also know that things rarely go in the game as you intended or planned - your players will do whatever they want to do (I usually don't railroad). The same is true in writing. When I'm in the flow, the text just comes and I have no idea of where it will go. All I can do is try to keep the world and characters as real as possible while the narrative runs amok. Just let it be Wilde like Oscar.

2. Be an Improviser (grounded, but not by parents)

Let your text surprise you, but don't try or force yourself to be super original all the time. Let it be messy. Just write it down as it comes. Accept it as it is. You will have the option later to redo and fix it over and over again. The first thing to do is to get something down and enjoy the process of doing it. It is not super serious, it can have silly puns, it can be weird - there are no limits.

However, as we try to keep things grounded in a long form show, so should the text be grounded. Take it just as another world that has a set of rules and things just are as they are, but they are real. Gravity is or is not, but not both in the same chapter without any good reason or explanation.

3. Be Ruthless (without Ruth?)

When you finish the text a different kind of game begins. 

Now it is time to go over it and find the main narrative. Remove the things that do not aid it and insert some that do. If there are too many characters, maybe you could remove some of them without a big change in the story. Maybe some of the characters could be multitasking?

I know, it is sometimes difficult to delete the jokes and puns that just do not fit into the big picture however, it is what you need for the clarity. 

Then let the text wait, until you forget about it, then reread it. How bad was it? Should you change something? I think my text is already a version 6 or 7 and now I would not say it is too bad. I even surprised myself in a good sense with it.

It is a process and I enjoy the ride, even though I don't know where it is going.