What a novel idea!

For most, I imagine, writing is a hunger that is only sated by constant and continued feeding. I always picture artists as lonely, tortured souls, desperately searching for a vehicle through which to share their beliefs, trials, and wisdom. Like the tell-tale heart beating under the floorboards, their desire threatens to drive them to absolute madness if it is not revealed or exposed.
Or something like that.
I was expressing to Alison the other day, as I am now for the first time attempting to write something substantial, that this hunger, this passion, is absent within me. To which she quickly responded, "well, maybe you're not an artist."
Maybe indeed.
So why do I write? It's a question I've asked myself many times, one that gains particular importance now because I am devoting a large part of my free time to writing a story that isn't particularly spiritual, edifying, novel, unique, or otherwise.
At this point, I write because God has gifted me in this area. Now, I don't expect to be published, or become the next Stephen King, but the practice of writing cannot help but do me good. And in fact it already has. I've written a press release for a software product, newsletters for a company, website copy, product manuals, and my own successful (to my mind) yet short-lived blog. The writing I do today, 400, 500 words, will hopefully someday benefit a group of people larger than myself. It might be an instruction manual. It might be a Lucadoistic book. (Lucadoistic comes from the self-penned word "Lucadoism", which is the section of inspirational Christian teaching most indebted to Max Lucado). It might be this blog (cue the cold shiver down the spine).
Anyway, I will be posting my progress semi-daily on this blog, and any other thoughts that might strike me down the line.
My story, Uncanny, now sits at 13,479 words, and is a very rough draft. But, credit to myself, it's the longest thing I've ever written. And how did I get through college as a Creative Writing major? That's another story for another time.
The story follows about five or six characters, which is much more difficult, in my mind, than having a main protagonist and sticking with him/her. For one, unless you work very hard, all of your characters think the same and say the same things. So you try to build very rich characters that will stand out from the others, but this swings you back into the dangerous yet fertile ground of creating stereotypical characters.
Am I making sense? It's getting late. I guess I'll go for now. Onward!