The value of experiences...

I've rewritten this blog post three times. My cousin died this week and although I've mentioned it, I'm not going to blog about that but about a realisation I made this week.

Writing is a solitary occupation. We inhabit quiet offices and make stuff up basically (and BOY did I get into trouble as a kid for that one!) so the hermit tendency is there.

Every experience is precious. Even the hard ones that make you want to crawl under the duvet and not emerge for months. I used to read books on writing that said that everything a writer sees and hears goes in and becomes grist for the mill.

Writing is hard. Yeah, I find it hard to get the words down on the page but there's a level beyond that. To tell a story and write the conflicts, the raw emotions, that's harder. To do that you need to live, you need to watch and you need to be true to your characters. You need to care about them, what happens to them. Don't wimp out on them with a half-baked plot or end the conflict early because you got uncomfortable. Make them sweat and make them cry...experience the story you're writing as only it's creator can.

Pfft, I'm waffling. We'll now return you to your regularly scheduled program...