The Bushido of Writing: The First Virtue
Write
The writer writes because she has to. It is a moral obligation to everyone in her life: to her parents, who wish her to live to her fullest potential. To her loved ones, who wish her to be fulfilled and whose lives will be less than perfect with an unproductive writer in their house. To herself; an unwriting writer is living a shadow life, with no spice, no salt: an overcooked piece of beef. She owes also to the idea: if an idea sits around within, it begins to rot and fester. If it is released, it has a chance to fly or fall; both are better than rotting and festering.
Writing an idea will release the writer to move on to the next idea. If she does not, then the unrealized idea becomes a roadblock and will not allow for more to flourish.
It is dishonorable to allow ideas to rot, to not fulfill one’s own potential. The Bushido Writer knows this, and accepts her duty to write. It is far more honorable to bring a bad story to page than to never write it in the first place.
The first virtue: Write.
About the Author: I am a writer and podcast producer, writing for magazines and RPGs. I am a wanna-be fiction writer with several short fiction, comic scripts, and one novel sale. Playing For Keeps will be out August, '08.
Ken McConnell | Nov 24, 2007 | Reply
Or as Tobias Buckell says: The first rule of Write Club is that all writers must Write.
fred | Nov 25, 2007 | Reply
The first rule ( I think ) should be there are no bad plots just poor writing habits.
Q | Nov 26, 2007 | Reply
The Second Virtue: Whenever you have to.
This post was the best thing I read all week.
Q
Robert | Nov 29, 2007 | Reply
When you accomplish the first virtue, you defeat several of the dreaded vices. These vices include, procrastination, lack of focus and idleness.
Samuel Tinianow | Dec 2, 2007 | Reply
I beg to differ on this one.
For me, the best part of writing has always been that I DON’T have to. My day is filled to the gills with crap that I have to do, either because I want to maintain some semblance of a life or because they’re expected of me. They’re there whether I want them to be or not.
By contrast, nobody HAS TO write. Sure, I’ve got lots of stories swimming around in my head, but you know what? If I wanted to, I could just let ‘em swim. I could keep them there for my entertainment only and to be perfectly honest, nobody would care. Nobody would be disappointed in me and there would be no negative consequences.
And yet. And yet. I write anyway. Because I WANT to. Because I drag my feet into my apartment late in the evening, go into the office room, boot up my computer, turn on the mood lighting, and put in a CD and IT FREAKIN’ GEEKS ME OUT. I mean, it’s fun. And the moment it stops being fun, I can give it a rest, because nobody is expecting anything of me. Even when I’m working under professional deadlines, I do so with the knowledge that if they become a problem, I can just quit.
And that’s always been the beauty of it: the fact that I can basically do what I damn well please, when it pleases me to do it. There’s no metaphysical force requiring any of it from me. For once.
Shawn Laplante | Dec 5, 2007 | Reply
@ Samuel:
I understand the post as this:
A writer has to write because there is a drive inside them that causes them to sit at the computer / typewriter and write. If they did not write, they feel this mental nagging, or a dent, or some kind of empty place, and they just feel funny.
It seems like your looking at it on a surface level.
But those are just my thoughts, and may not mean anything to anyone else but me, which is what writing is all about.
Darryl Sloan | Dec 8, 2007 | Reply
“If an idea sits around within, it begins to rot and fester.”
To the contrary, I have had numerous experiences of letting ideas sit - sometimes for years. They do not fester. Like a good wine, they often get better with age.
This is because a large part of all the writing you do is all the THINKING that you do long before you put pen to page.
Michele Lee | Dec 9, 2007 | Reply
*mad clapping*