I have a problem. I have too many book ideas.

It sounds like a good problem to have, and honestly, it is. But when you have unfinished manuscripts sitting on your computer, stories you've promised yourself you'll return to, and new ideas appearing almost every day, deciding what to write next becomes surprisingly difficult.

And then come the inevitable questions: Will anyone actually want to read it? Is it publishable? Is the premise too niche? Is this genre popular enough? Would a publisher want it? Would readers care? 

It's very easy to get so caught up in those questions that you forget the most important one: Do I want to write this?

I'm trying to remind myself of that more often, because I can't predict what readers will want three years from now. I can't know which story will find a huge audience, which will find a small but devoted one, or which might teach me something about becoming a better writer. What I can know is whether I'm excited to tell the story.

So, for now, I'm trying to write the books I love. The characters I can't stop thinking about. The ideas that keep showing up even when I have absolutely no business starting another manuscript. 

Will everyone want to read them? Probably not. But maybe the right readers will, and I think that's enough reason to keep writing.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have another book idea to add to the list.

I finally gave in to the fad. After years of having a vague idea that I should have a website, followed by several years of actually having one and doing very little with it, I have now decided to take things one step further. I have a blog because apparently having a website wasn’t enough.

Should I be working on my unfinished manuscripts instead of writing this? Absolutely. I have stories sitting in various stages of completion, characters waiting for me to figure out what happens to them, chapters that need rewriting, and approximately seventeen ideas that I have promised myself I will definitely get to one day.

Am I working on those manuscripts right now? No. Am I adding to the list of stories I want to write? Every. Single. Day.

Somewhere between editing, reading, plotting, daydreaming, and telling myself that I really ought to finish the thing I started six months ago, a new story will inevitably appear. Usually at the most inconvenient possible moment. A character will wander into my head. A conversation will pop up. A completely unnecessary but somehow very important plot idea will demand attention. And naturally, I write it down, because that's how the list keeps growing. So perhaps this blog is not the most productive use of my time. But I suppose writing has never really been about doing things in the most sensible order.

This space is where I want to talk about that messy, exciting, occasionally ridiculous process of being a writer. The books I'm working on, the books I'm reading, ideas that refuse to leave me alone, the realities of publishing, and whatever else happens along the way.

I don't know exactly what this blog will become yet. But then again, I didn't know exactly what any of my stories would become when I first started writing them either. So, here we are. Welcome to my little corner of the internet. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a manuscript to ignore.