# On (Not) Writing

I don't write for a living. Clearly, right? Anyway, I write for pleasure. As in, there are no negative consequences if I don't write something, other than the fact that something I thought might be a good idea at one time won't be a thing I can go back and read later.

Which brings me to my next point, which is basically an extension of the first one. I've found out the secret to finishing a novel. The secret is, quit writing it. I have quit writing every book I've finished. But I end up feeling unsettled by the lack of resolution, or the characters pop into my head and something in me just needs to get back to it. The writing starts feeling easier again. Never easy (beyond the first 10000 words) but possible, and the parts that feel like work feel like meaningful work. But there does have to be something that pulls me back.

There wasn't that this November. I liked the idea enough that I picked it and wrote into it, but when I quit, that was it. There was no desire to get back to my exorcism patient or her battle with the demon that killed her family. I'm coming to terms with the fact that that is okay. I don't have to finish every story that I start, and if this one wants to be written badly enough, I'll get back to it. I doubt it, but stranger things have happened.