Writing is such fun

Writing is such fun. Like, really really fun.

But it does take me a long time.

It used to come so much easier when I was younger.. especially in my early teens. Now I just struggle though. I'm not sure if it's the drinking and smoking, or the loss I'm feeling as having to rewrite so much of what I lost.

When I moved back from Holland, I lost pretty much everything I had. The thing I miss most though was my Amstrad 6128. I wrote so many things on that when I was 12+, so many many things. Losing that was a crushing blow, and only now, 7 years after losing it, am I finally becoming able to write stories again.

AL was probably a big reason for this. Writing is so much like world building (and in this case, was the world!), and why make my own when I have such a rich background already living. "Because I want to" doesn't cut it when you're weak-willed and depressed - go for the easy option (or the harder one really).

But Arcip is finally coming together. I'm surprisingly becoming quite disciplined about it, though with mixed results. Sometimes I can write 3 or 4 pages, other times I'm lucky it I get a paragraph. I still feel loathe to go back and rewrite stuff as I'm still exploring the characters. I also suspect I will have to rewrite a lot, but ho-hum the flow of thought :P.

One thing I am glad about is that the years more wisdom have made me a better writer (in my opinion, but then I thought I was a pretty damn hot writer when I was 9!). So far, not one sex scene (the sexually frustrated version of Arcip only had one, but other writings at the time were littered) and instead a lot more (too much methinks sometimes) character exploration.

A private wiki is an amazing resource for writers I've found. I'm currently using Mediawiki at the moment, though that's only out of laziness - a smaller, lighter one would be better. Being able to draw links between characters and (especially!) dates makes it lots easier to visualise your world.

Anyhow. Off to visit friends in my hometown of Windsor this weekend. Wondering weather to take Bernard (my laptop) or go cold turkey. Ran outa smoke and not drinking either, so don't think I'd be able to bear it ;).