Day 25

Writing a novel is kind of like chipping away a block of marble to reveal the sculpture within, except in reverse.

What we start out is usually a blank piece of paper or a blank document, then we start to fill in words that attempt to convey the ideas and thoughts and characters and stories in our mind. Every word is equivalent to every chisel, but instead of subtracting, we're adding. In the past, every chisel had to be precise; it had to reflect the exact creation process or else the entire block would have to be thrown out. I can't say I envy the discipline and frustration writers must have had as they wrote on their typewriters. Modern writers are truly spoiled by computers and the ease to copy, paste, cut and edit.

Even so, storytelling remains a daunting task to do well. There's an art to the whole thing that no amount of technological advancement can replace. It's called creativity. And I'm glad to be living in a culture that promotes and encourages creativity, and provides ever-improving tools to help lift that creativity.

My favorite computer platform now is the Mac, and my favorite writer's tool is iWork/Pages. I love the simplicity and the compactness of the software. It allows me to focus on my writing. And yet it also provides me with the bells and whistles to edit and rewrite, or to collaborate with others. Tools should not hinder; they should enhance the creative process. And I have find it absolutely true with the slew of utilities and applications available on the Mac.

So, every day I'm chipping away the block, adding the black marks into my virtual pages called a document. 500 words every day. Sometimes I slack. Sometimes I do more than I've allotted for the day. But the incredible thing is, I am writing. So far I've added 10,000 words to the WIP, more than I've done in the past three months. And that's the important thing, that I keep chipping away.

Chip. Chip. Chip.

500 word, 10500 words total
340 days and 175000 words to go