The Writing Room: Entry 1 "Marble Notebooks"

The Writing Room Intro

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Keith Kareem Williams. I am a father, an entrepreneur and an author. Welcome to my blog and I hope I can entertain you with my posts, make you think, or smile, or maybe even help you along the way on your own journey. If you’re a passionate lover of literature, I hope that my “The Writing Room” series of posts will provide you with an interesting glimpse into how I write my stories as I share all of the odd idiosyncrasies that I use to get me through, from the first sentence to the time I type THE END. If you are a writer and reading this, I hope that you find some, or all, of what I post useful in some way. If not, feel free to poke your finger at me while whispering, “That guy’s crazy.”

January 2, 2014
I'll be the 1st one to tell you that I'm REALLY glad that 2013 is over even though it means that I'm going to be year older in a few days. (I've never feared aging anyway and I wouldn't trade what I know now for youthful, ignorant, bliss...Ok, maybe I would but ONLY because it was so much fun being young and dumb.) 

As of today, I've slept a total of six hours since New Year's Eve. I'm in the process of finishing my sixth novel and being so close to the end makes me restless.

Last year, I found a way to avoid the bane to ALL writer's existence...the dreaded "writer's block." I keep a composition notebook with me at all times and as random ideas come to me for the story, I jot them down. They aren't in any particular order and I find that the randomness of the entries takes the pressure off of me to be perfect. (I'm a slow writer at times because I foolishly try to get everything "right" when working on the actual manuscript.) I've tried unsuccessfully for years to shake that bad habit but I'm just wired that way I suppose. Even on the days when I don't touch the draft, I still scribble ideas in the notebook which keeps me from having those unproductive gaps when I stress about not being as productive as I should have been. It also keeps me vigilante in getting everything that I want to express packed into the story because I write every thought down as soon as they pop into my fevered brain. One of the most frustrating things in the world  is having the doorbell, a phone call, text message, email or natural disaster make you forget a brilliant idea that would have made your story pop.