Gotta Write

When I first started toying with the idea of writing a book I thought that I would get a real kick out of chatting with people about what I was doing.  After all, when I tell people that I’m a professional writer they usually light up and ask about what books I’ve written.  It’s then that I have to sheepishly admit that 90% of my writing has been published online, and that the only published book I’ve contributed to only has a chapter I wrote. 

On the other hand, tell people that you’re smack in the middle of writing a book, and suddenly they’re intrigued. 

Allow me to clarify that I’m not writing a book just to make conversation.  I’m writing it to get this story out of my head.  Hopefully some of you will get what I’m saying, because I’m not quite sure how to explain it.

Anyhow, the question usually pops up:  “What is the book about?” to which I usually answer, “It’s fiction.”  This is usually met by more questions like, “What’s the story?” or “What kind of story is it?”

I’ll let you in on a little secret: I don’t know what kind of story it is.  I’m halfway through the thing, and I can’t decide whether it’s a mystery or a thriller or what.  I mean, it begins with someone getting killed and we spend the rest of the time trying to figure out who the killer is and what the motive was, but in between there is so much stuff going on that I don’t know if mystery or thriller really sums it up effectively.

Do all authors get so picky about their writing?

I’m guessing that when the book is actually done I’ll be able to classify the genre, but until then it’s just kind of a convoluted mess of words that I think is pretty darn clever.  So I’ll just keep shrugging and replying, “Uh, fiction?” when someone asks me what the book is about.  Hopefully it will become clearer to me the further I get into it.

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