I’ll probably publish this later, but at the time of this writing it’s January 20, 2022, and I’ve been hard at work on my next novel for many hours at a time recently. Whenever I can get all my other life obligations out of the way, I’ve been getting to work on this project to the best of my abilities. Life never seems to get out of the way fully, but I am trying to give this material the respect it deserves, and setting aside some time each day when I can. I am very excited to release it when it’s finally ready, which will take a couple more months. Due to the fact that I have already written a couple novels, and I have already made my amateur mistakes as an artist, or however the saying goes, I believe this one will be quite good. I used to think that weird beliefs people had about the arts, such as the fact that a person gets better over time, were mostly silly and unfounded. Things like that didn’t really feel like they had any basis in reality, it just sounds like something people like to say when they have nothing else to say.
However, with the passage of time, I think that is a correct assumption to make about artists, generally speaking. Now that I’ve already had the experience of writing a novel a couple times in my past, I am naturally much better at doing it now. The first novel I ever published was in 2015, so that’s almost a full decade ago. In the time since I have experimented with various ways of working and trying shit out. Now, the process I’m currently engaged in; the act of actually coming up with an idea, then actually writing it, is something I have finally refined. In other words, I’ve arrived at a place where it feels like I know exactly how to do it, yet it still poses an interesting enough challenge for me where it’s not so boring it’s not worth doing at all.
The best way I can put it, and what I have learned about the entire process of taking on a creative endeavour of this nature, is that it is no different than the building of a house, or the construction or some other type of building. And I will take it a step further: I would argue that this is applicable across the arts in general. When we think of a person who sits down to write a novel, or a person who is recording an album, or someone making a painting, we tend to think of someone engaging in some kind of mysterious alchemical process that is impossible to clearly define. To a certain extent, that is not an incorrect assessment of the artistic process. Because of the level your subconscious is involved in idea generation, and how so much of your brain is a mystery, creating something is definitely a form of magic. But on the flip side of that same coin, there is also something quite mechanical I love about something artistic such as writing a novel.
Once you get past the mystery part, at a certain point, all the process really comes down to is the management of your own energy and discipline. After I’ve accomplished a certain word count, or a certain amount of chapters for the day or some other period of time, writing the novel feels less like this mysterious indescribable fever dream, and more like I am just building a house. It is almost like the creation of the characters, the world, the brainstorming, the outlining, etc., all of the shit that comes before the writing of the actual novel is just going to Home Depot and gathering the materials I will need. It’s like I’m just going to the store and buying all the stuff I need and crossing off my list. Then, when it comes time to work, I am merely just following the correct order required to construct the building one step at a time.
When I wrote my first novel, Absolute Anhedonia, I remember thinking at the time that it was going to be such a daunting task that would require way too much hard work. It took me years of starting and stopping and multiple attempts at getting it right. I started in late 2012, and when I was finally happy with what I had it was 2015. Compared to when I wrote, The Lost Generation, it only took me like 3 or 4 months because I was beginning to know what I was doing and understood the process a bit more. I don’t believe I was wrong initially to think making something would be daunting, but once you start to look at it like the construction of a building, it strangely becomes a whole lot easier.
Similarly, when you look at books that have developed a reputation for being long and impossibly difficult, stuff like War and Peace, Moby Dick, In Search of Lost Time, or Great Expectations, you might think to yourself, “I can’t read this shit. Look how big this book is. Absolutely ridiculous.” But the saying, “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” exists for a reason. It is often the case that these authors wrote stuff that was published serially. Chapters of books back then were written and released similar to the way episodic television is today. It’s not like Tolstoy sat down and shat out all of War and Peace in one night. That would be truly amazing, but the reality is that he did all of that over several different nights. Not to take anything away from any of these people, because in the end they still accomplished something fairly noteworthy and contributed to mankind’s artistic history before dying like everyone else. But it’s still important to remember: the key ingredient required for the arts, even for things that seem like they’re impossible, is really just hard work, consistency, and discipline. You’re no different than a guy showing up at a construction site with a hard hat at 5AM to get as much as possible done before lunch. This shit is serious business: you’re building something that might mean something to someone some day if you build it well and it has a strong foundation to last long enough. I try to remind myself of this fact whenever I sit down to write something: even if it feels like I am just in my room fucking around with a keyboard and no one might even read what I’m doing in my lifetime or whatever, this is the real deal. This is not just playing around, this is a matter of life and death, this is a construction zone, time and money have been invested in this thing and people can get hurt if safety and shit isn’t taken seriously. A thing could fall on a guy’s head and the company could get sued. This metaphor is becoming too fun now, but you get my point, haha. I hope this serves you well in your own life if you’re a creative person. Be careful out there and good luck.
