First Post

God I hate those words. As if being the first person to add a comment to a blog or article is a great accomplishment. But they are appropriate, given that this is my first blog post. That and I couldn't come up with something witty.

I've wanted to be a writer for a long time, and at one point I was a technical writer at IBM on Visual Age for Java (the precursor to Eclipse) for a couple of years. Unfortunately, technical writing didn't live up to my dreams. Well, my vague musings anyway. I didn't really understand what technical writing was about at the time, so I didn't really have all that many expectations. It was a pretty good job, and I learned a lot about writing in general, not just technical writing. That being said, I missed doing software development and left my dreams of being a writer behind.

About a year or so later in 2001, I wrote an article about Apache Tomcat for Linux Magazine, and landed a short lived job as their new Java columnist. I wrote three or four articles for them (I think three actually made it to print) before differences in opinion between myself and the editor were a little more than either of us cared for. Since then, I haven't done any professional writing.

But what I really wanted to do was write fiction. Yep, I have artistic aspirations. Not particularly lofty ones though. I'd like to write genre fiction, specifically fantasy. I'm not looking to write the next great Canadian novel, I've just got a story or two inside me that I'd like to tell. I've read a lot about the craft of writing, and I attended a couple of creative writing classes at the University of Toronto (taught by Lee Gowan, from whom I learned a lot) back in 2002 or so. I did manage to get a first chapter written, but not much more. Its amazing how often you can end up re-writing the same chapter, tweaking something here and there.

And where did my career go from there? Well, not in writing. I ended up working lots of very long hours at a startup company and didn't have much in the way of free time to write. After a while, working long hours became a habit and an excuse not to write. An excuse not to fail at something I cared about, truth be told.

I did, and am doing, very well in my career. I actually enjoy software development and that's a lot of what this blog will be about. I've done all aspects of the job, from lowly code monkey to module design, project lead, team lead (think project managment), technical lead, and architect. Each part of the job has its appeal. Well, being a code monkey with a crappy assignment wasn't a lot of fun, but it had its moments. And I still try to code a bit every day; I'm a firm believer that staying close to the code ensures you don't forget the practical aspects of trying to implement a design. I've seen my share of elegant-on-paper but really friggin' hard to implement designs and architectures; I've tried hard to avoid making those same mistakes.

A few months ago I was feeling pretty restless. Something was bothering me, but I didn't know what. My job didn't have the same sparkle it used to have. Luckily for me I had a whack of vacation saved up that I was going to lose if I didn't use it, so I basically took off the entire month of December to work on writing. It was invigorating! I hadn't had so much fun in a very long time. I got a fairly detailed outline done in about a week, and then started in writing after that. It got easier each day, and I was able to get more pages written in a day as time went on. I topped out at about five to eight pages. Given some unavoidable interruptions, including Christmas in Ottawa with my parents, wife, and two wonderful kids, I managed to get about 30 pages of the manuscript finished.

No, I'm not going to tell you what the story is about. Its my baby. Mine! Seriously, untill I finish a complete first draft no one is likely to see it. Even my wife seeing it is only a 50/50 proposition.

After that first rush, my enthusiasm for writing admittedly waned. Not having several hours of solid writing time, which I spent mostly in coffee shops or at Sick Kids, can be hard. My daughter is almost five years old, and our son is one. The sheer noise level can be overwhelming at times, and getting a solid chunk of alone time with no distractions to write is challenging to say the least. Also, the longer I've been away from writing, the harder it seems to be to get back to it. There always seems to be a reason not to do it.

All that being said, to be a writer you have to write. So, I'm trying some writing that is less personal to help warm me up for those more personal and creative writing sessions. Obviously, that writing is this blog. I'll be working on writing about stuff in my working life of software development. The idea is that the more I write, the more of a habit it is. And hopefully some of that time I dedicate to writing the blog can be transformed into creative writing time.

I probably won't be talking about creative writing all that often here, so if the above hasn't been your cup of tea don't worry. I won't be doing it often. For the foreseeable future I'll be talking about all the stages of software development, particularly as how I'm applying what I know to an open source project I've started. Yep, I've got a blog, I'm working on an open-source project, I want to do fiction writing, I have a full-time job doing software development, and I've got a family to fit in there. I think I'm doomed as well, but I'm hoping it will be a fun ride.