Why I Can’t Quit the Writing Life Even If I Think I Should

This is a good thing. Writing is in my blood. To quit is not an option.

Photo by Adam Satria on Unsplash

The first sci-fi novel I wrote when I was 9 years old is impressive only because of the age I was when I wrote it.

Wildfire is 50 pages and illustrated. It’s the story of how the adults of the world allow robots to take over and do everything. In time, the kids rebel, steal military equipment, and create a hideout in the Grand Canyon to attack from.

There is adventure, romance, combat, and intrigue. Or, you know, as much as a 9-year-old can build such.

After writing this, the urge to write continued. I started another illustrated sci-fi story I didn’t finish. I typed my 36-page homage to Tron — called The Secret Computer World — at 13.

My writing began to slow down, though. I was working on a fantasy epic into college and wrote an award-winning technothriller short story in my senior year of High School.

In college, with the pursuit of my theatre degree (ironically largely outside the actual theatre department) and college radio work, writing fell away.

It wasn’t until I was almost 2 years out of college (digression — I stayed in my college town for a year after graduating and took some odd jobs before moving on) I started writing again. While working my first real job, there were long periods of downtime. During one, a scene came to my head.

That scene would evolve into my Source Chronicles fantasy series.

This would return me to writing. In time, I realized that writing is not simply something I do. It’s a compulsion. I need to craft works like I need to breathe air.

This is why I can’t quit — even if I think I should.

Why would I think I should quit?

I decided at the end of 2020 to take on a somewhat daunting project. I had started publishing my Void Incursion sci-fi/sci-fantasy series during 2020 and had a couple more books nearly complete. Shifting from writing as a pantser to a planner, I plotted out my Forgotten Fodder sci-fi series. I decided that for 2021 I could publish 6 novels total.