Action Bias: Take Two

I used to write a lot. I started writing when I was 13, and my output has been pretty high for most of that time. My peak was in college. As a Social Science major I took a lot of essay heavy classes, but I also wrote essays on my own time for fun and to sort out ideas. I was a regular contributor to a collaborative fiction club, and at any given time had three or four fictional projects I was working on by myself. And I had a blog I wrote in once or twice a week.

During that time my brain was almost constantly engaged in writing. Walking to class I'd be working on a mental outline for the project of the moment. Once I got there instead of paying attention I'd compose sentences that were aesthetically appealing even without context. The best ones would become the first line of a new story as soon as I got home. Waiting in line at the grocery store I'd have a blog rolling around in my mind. Half of those blog posts were never actually written, and well more than half of those stories were never finished, for the simple reason that by the time I had a chance to work on them, I had a newer/more interesting idea that I couldn't help but write about instead.

After graduation though, my output started to taper off. No classes meant a lot fewer essays. It also paradoxically lead to a lot less fiction, since I no longer spent large swaths of time sitting around with nothing better to do that think about ideas. I kept the blog going, and probably had a slight increase in my submissions to the collaborative fiction, but writing in general took on a much less central role in my life.

At the end of 2007 I got very sick, and one of the many results was that I didn't write anything at all for several months. When I was finally healthy again a sense of obligation to the group helped me get back into the habit of writing for the collaborative fiction, but the blog was done for good. At that point I was only writing a few pages a month at most, and sometimes less. I started what was to be a major fictional work in saga style, but set it down after a few chapters never to open the file again. That was the last solo writing project I've attempted, aside from the half-hearted attempt to start this blog last March.

In the last month I've come to the conclusion that my 12 year foray into collaborative fiction is over. For the last year I've noticed my submissions getting longer, less frequent, and, most tellingly, less collaborative, but it was only recently that I realized how little I enjoy writing now. I'm not sure how I got to that place.

So, even though I'm retiring from the group that has been my only outlet for the better part of two years now, I'm going to attempt to rekindle some of that passion I used to have. First I need to get back in the habit of writing on a more regular basis, and that's why I'm going to give this blog another go. The goal to start will be one post a week, Let's see how long I can keep that up.