A Word From the Editor: Writing by Brian Jackson

Staring at a blank page, I sit down to write. We all do it. We've caught "the bug". To some it comes easily, to others it's more difficult. We each have our ups and downs. But we all do it. It's as if we have no choice; it's encoded in our DNA.

Some days it feels like pulling teeth getting each word down on the page. Other days the words gush forth as if from a geiser forcing us to stay up late for fear we'll lose touch with the muse. Most of the time it's something in between; a private world, where time speeds up and slows down, where we're sometimes briliant, more often mediocre, and less often yet downright horrible.

But we always come back for more. Why?

Could it be that there's nothing to compare with that feeling when you sit down to work and you're in complete control. You're writing can take you anywhere. Faced with a blank page, the bold begin to type, only having a vague idea of what they're writing about but eager to see where their fingers will take them. Others begin to outline a plot breaking it down into a sequence of scenes which must occur to tell a cleaver story. Still others begin defining their characters, who they are, what they think, how they will react in any situation. They research locations and time periods in which the story will be set and aim for plush detail and realism in their characters and locales. Most of us do a little of each of these, but we each have our preference.

Could it be instead that we love the simple mechanics of the process. Am I writing a short story or a novel? First person or third? Shall I use "Dialog that stands alone." "Or shall I explicitly state whose speaking?" I ask myself. Why not both? What about word choice? What about tone? Can it really be possible that every word I choose matters?

Is it simply the feel of your fingers flying across the keyboard?

Staring at the blank page, all of these thoughts run through my mind and I feel alive. Someday I'd like for someone to read and connect with these words, but no matter. I have to write them anyway, becuase I'm a writer.

That's all. I have to go write now.