![[Logo]](/images/101ReasonsLogo.png "101 Reasons to Stop Writing")
It’s been almost a year (347 days and counting) since 101 Reasons began on its mission to explore and chart the futility of the Writing Life. From not-terribly-funny beginnings, and a single link from a friend’s blog, it’s grown into the indie-cool shared secret it is today. And after all that time, I’ve only managed to write 15 Reasons.
I’ve decided to document this shame with a new box in the sidebar, featuring a visual progress indicator for those of you who have trouble mentally calculating the ratio of 15 to 101, and an estimated completion date, which is currently predicting March 15, 2013. Holy crap. The Iraq War might be over by then.
If you only discovered this site in the last few months, you might wonder why updates are so sporadic. Well, the excuse I mentioned back in February has been unexpectedly persistent. I’ll elaborate on this in a Reason eventually, but the gist is this: you can write when you have children, depending on how much of an asshole you’re prepared to be. But if you have 2 or more very young children (in my case, 2 under 2, plus 2 older), trying to write will make you insane. I’m talking “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” insane. Don’t say no-one warned you.
There’s definitely a small possibility that this situation is going to improve over the next few months. We may even hit Reason #20 by the end of the year. I may even be able to clear the enormous backlog of half-written draft entries I’ve got. Who knows, maybe we’ll even see the return of the Weekend Updates, and an occasional interview.
Far bigger things than this have been promised and not delivered, by far richer men than I. In the realms of improbability, this is almost plausible.
By the way, I recently upgraded the blogging software this site runs on (Wordpress 2.3, if you’re interested) to allow proper “tagging” of articles, so you’ll be able to find related posts more easily. Over the next few weeks/months I’ll be going through the archives, adding tags, fixing spelling errors and formatting problems, and repairing some truncated entries. I mention this because:
If you subscribe to the 101 Reasons feed, you may notice old articles appearing in the feed over the next few weeks as they get updated. I’m sorry for this inconvenience.
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Hmm. Perhaps you should consider sending off to India for outsourcing? Those people are great at reading manuals and spouting off rote answers… surely you could teach them to come up with reasons not to write?
Aren’t half-written drafts the same as novels tucked into dresser drawers and under bed and in trunks?
It’s like a hierarchy – rejected, uneditted, draft, in-progress, half-written, outlined, idea on scrap paper, talked about, thought about, and unconceived – yes, the final category of what will not be published – unconceived.
We “writers” consider it a sin to leave a novel – unconceived.
You “practicalistic existenalist” consider that better thought of and thought inconceivable.
heh, heh, heh
Dave, I think you’re confusing being philosophical with just making shit up. “Practicalistic existentialist” ? And what exactly can one do with an unconceived idea? A thought unthought is no thought at all.
I’m glad you put “writers” in quotation marks.
In the spirit of 101 REASONS TO STOP WRITING – “And what exactly can one do with an unconceived idea? A thought unthought is no thought at all” – is a reason not to write.
Heather — Or you can just outsource your childcare.
Sean, I hear you about the kids thing. I’m editing my second novel, writing a third, and trying to pack in a few short stories and submissions in between. I have four children–ages 12, 10, 7, and 4–and the only way I get anything done is waiting until they all go to bed. Needless to say, I’m usually up until the wee hours of the morning and average about four hours of sleep a night. If I have one reason to stop writing, it’s that I’ve run out of caffeine.
That link just made my day. I didn’t know “The Onion” had vids and everything. Wow.
Lee, you know that if you’re routinely getting four hours of sleep, you’re functionally drunk. You shouldn’t even be operating a motor vehicle, let alone writing a novel you expect anyone to read. You’re like Charles Bukowski, without all the liquid field research.
The Iraq war being over by 2013?! What are you freebasing (and can I have a hit?) This is AMERICA. Land of the Bloodthirsty. Home of Greedy Corporations.