I would consider buying it. FWIW I also get the urge to write fiction and other non-blogging matterials. What I do is just go write it and then I post it on my personal web page which is completely unrelated to my blog. If someone happens to run across it great. If not that is fine as well. One of these days I'll decide I have enough practiced to write something longer and "more important." But when you need to write writing is what you need to do.

Absolutely.

Rory, if you wrote a fiction book I'd live it and then make you wonder how fictional it really was.

Yes, write the book!

Write the book.
Don't bother with the "I'm still alive" posts -- they tend to try people's patience with blogger egos, online petitions, anonymous insulters, and boring, repeated memes about how blogging is going to change the universe.
Seriously though, one of the nice things about RSS is that you don't have to remember to keep checking a page that is left dormant. It can be ignored for months and as soon as new content is posted, all your regular readers will see it. Their is no need for them to unsubscribe from a quiet weblog. "I'm still alive" is completely unnessary (and disappointing, when the reader was expecting real content). For those that are truly concerned with knowing if you are really still alive - they should take comfort in knowing that someone will blog about it if you die.

I'd buy it if you'd make it available as an eBook!

Rory, you blog is actually one of the very few I enjoy reading. And, taking your writing internal is not bad at all. In fact, most people which write do this, and they call it a diary :). In fact, I've found it always strange that everybody just starts to take their innermost outside for the whole world to see (but that's just me).

If you're gonna write a book, please post at least some preview during the months coming. Such that we all can decide if it's really worth buying. But I guess it'll be :)

Re: Or will you have forgotten by then that I ever existed?

Some things make such an impact on us that they are beyond the capacity to forget.

In any case, you wouldn't be disappearing to remain silent; you'd be disappearing to gather yourself, and re-emerge even louder.

What is the question here anyway - write a book *now,* or sit on this drive and write it "later?"

It seems to be what you really want to do. Will you be happy if you don't?

I say write the god damn book.

Damn, those anti-depressants can be a bear to deal with... been there... your piece about coming off the meds was the best Rory. I had my wife read it as it explained stuff in a way that I had never been able to in the past. Thank you a million times for that.

I say give it a week or 2 and see how you feel. With what you are dealing with at present, you might feel differently in a couple of weeks.

I honestly belive that EVERYONE who has read your blog will NEVER forget you Rory (they might want to, but your writing doesn't really make that an option).

take a break.

Rory

DON'T STOP BLOGGING DUDE. Hey, I've been having withdrawl symptoms of my own - neopoleon.com withdrawl symptoms. I was wondering where you'd got to for the last few days, waiting for the flag to appear next to your blog in my bloglines account. You have 539 subscribers there alone. It's cruel to write such a good blog and then go under the radar for prolonged periods of time. Anyway, most of us regular blog readers have bad cases of Attention Deficit Disorder anyway, so we soon forget about quiet blogs. Why lose all your readers in the run up to releasing a book? Your blog is the perfect platform to release a book - hell, if it's as good as some of your posts, I'd buy it. I'd buy it just to make a contribution to keep you blogging dude. Your blog is your launch platform. In my opinion letting it go cold would be a very bad move indeed.

Blog on Rory, blog on.

How about this question, Rory:

Why *wouldn't* you write your book?

I'd buy your book, no matter what. But, I can't see why you can't write and blog. To me, they are very different things. My favorite new sci-fi author, John Scalzi, writes books, and blogs: http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/ . He has been writing and blogging for a long time, but last year released his first sci-fi novel, Old Man's War (which was a pretty good book, in a Heinlein like fashion a la Starship Troopers).

I'd buy it. Especially if you made it about coding. I love fiction books about programmers, espeically since I only know of one so far.

You're timeless, my friend!

I'd buy it if it was for free ;)

I'll buy it if you'll sign it the next time I see you after I've bought it.

Quite simply, yes.

I would be thrilled to read a book you've written, provided it was as entertaining as your blogs. A big chunk of Rory-fiction would be glorious. If you did decide to go that way, I'm sure you would still have entertaining anecdotes you couldn't help but share every now and again.

The only real problem for me would be getting this book in new Zealand.

J

Why do you care about our opinion ? Why do you want to know if we would buy it ? Why do you care about "I'm still alive" posts ? Are you afraid that we forget you ? Do you have an ego problem ?

If you feel like writing a book, just go write the damn book ! And don't forget to tell us when it's ready ;-) Oh wait... What about a comic strip ? :-D

Happy writing.

Do it man! I'd buy it.

Serge -

"Why do you care about our opinion ?"

Good question.

Aydika asked me the same thing last night, and I think it comes down to some residual weirdness from the anti-depressant withdrawal.

When I wrote the post, as I told her, I was feeling "weak and vulnerable."

Writing the book (or *a* book - there are many I want to write) would take quite a bit of faith in myself, you know? As much as I would enjoy writing one, it's not so easily started, and I guess I must have been trying to rustle up a little encouragement with this post. I usually don't need encouragement, but, as I said, I was feeling "weak and vulnerable."

Sort of like a pretty girl who keeps asking "Do these jeans make me look fat?"

Oddly enough, I felt that I was lacking some confidence.

"Why do you want to know if we would buy it ?"

I wish I had some way of knowing why people read this blog.

Here are some common reasons I've come up with:

1) They like it (duh)
2) They read it because a friend told them to, but they don't really like it that much
3) They subscribe to it because other people do, but they don't really read it

If there were enough people reading this blog who *liked* it, and if enough of them were willing to pay for a book, then I could, potentially, make myself a "real" writer someday.

So I prodded a little...

"Are you afraid that we forget you ?"

It's weird - I didn't care at all before about how many readers I had, but my blog is currently rated about 750 out of 9,500,000 on Technorati, and that feels like a foolish thing to lose.

I'm caught between really not wanting to care, and caring by default.

"Do you have an ego problem ?"

Yes, but I can't figure out if it's too big or too small.

It's big enough that I can bounce back without a problem now when people start insulting me, but it seems to be small enough that I didn't want to just start a book project without assuring myself that I'd have an audience later.

"If you feel like writing a book, just go write the damn book ! And don't forget to tell us when it's ready ;-) Oh wait... What about a comic strip ? :-D"

I have a comic strip ready to go - just looking for time to prep and post it (they take much more time than you'd think).

Hmm . . . I have been reading your blog for more than a year and a half, and although I have enjoyed it, I can't say I would buy the book. I am simply not that big of a Rory fan-boy. I enjoy reading your opinion, but I don't know that a stale medium, like a book, would be a good venue for your work. I like your blog because of the immediacy of it - if that went away . . . I don't know that I would enjoy it much. Just my opinion on the matter. Don't hate me. :P

You Rock Rory You Put Something up for sale I'll buy it.

"I wish I had some way of knowing why people read this blog."

I was initially drawn to your blog because of your 2003 PDC odyssey, and then you kept me with irreverent, demented humor and illustrations, as well as your seemingly balanced opinions on some things, like the open-source world, Linux, etc.

It just occurred to me that I'm not seeing the conflict here; what would prevent you from writing your book while *also* posting your thoughts here and there when you felt like it?

Do you think that, even if you spent hours and hours novelling away, you could really stop blogging? That you could stay away from the instant gratification of the "Publish" button?

I say write what you feel like writing. Follow your passion. If you feel like putting together a few pages of fiction right now, do it. Don't worry about what you "should" do or the opportunity costs associated with your choices. When the back of your brain starts churning out ideas (and words to go with them), don't let the front of your brain shut things down. That back part usually knows best... Trust it.

Most likely, you'll get blocked from time to time on your bigger project(s) anyway. You'll get blocked, and you'll blog. The blogging will seem easy, comparatively, and all of us Rory fans will get our fix.

Just don't let a sense of duty get in the way of what your mind wants to write.

sme too

Just based on what I've seen since I started reading your blog, I can honestly say you have a better way with words and are a much better story teller than anyone else I read. I'd almost go as far as saying you inspire me to write more (and write less technical jabber). If you do go forward and write a book, I'd be in line to buy it.

I would definitely buy a book written by you Rory - if it's anything like your blog it'll have me peeing my pants in no time.

Normally I'd answer a question like that with the asker's position in mind - in this case I'd say "go ahead, leave the blog and write the book."

But I wont.

Being brutally honest here: would I forget you and/or would I want your book?

No. Neither.

I wouldn't forget you - you were the first blog I read and the one I keep coming back to because of you view-point-snippets. I get major value from your constant thoughtlets on different aspects of life.

And personally, it takes a LOT for me to want to read a fiction book, so I probably wouldn't read yours - unless you signed it for me or something.

So, yes you'd be gone, and I'd remember you, but the book wouldn't be a substitute.

A selfish answer? Sure. But you wanted the truth and telling you to "go with what you love" wouldn't be a true answer from me.

Now... having said that - don't keep writing the blog for me (or others) if you'd rather write fiction. If you really want to write fiction you'll build up other fans like me for that medium.

So in the end it looks like I'll be saying "do what you love" after all.

I'm not a fan of books either. I don't honestly understand why though yet I'll read text on a computer screen perfectly fine.

What kind of Rory book would I buy? If it was a book full of your comic strips but NOT any of those on your blog. You'd have to hide them away secretly tucked until that one day you could release a couple hundred pages of them. They could be a collection of short stories in graphic form, stick figures and all. What I find sad is that I'd pay a good $50 or more for a book of Rory comics but wouldn't pay a dime for a really good book, technical or otherwise. There's also something to be said about me prefering stick figures over a masterpeice of shading and color but I suppose it's not about the art so much as it is about what is said your comics. Then again the art does sum it up nicely in a "yeah I can do that" sort of way (yet my stick figures would be worse).

I'll second Matt in saying I wouldn't forget you and I believe you're the first blog I subscribed to other than those I wanted for work purposes. I guess a major reason I like the blog is that we come from a similar past in our technological studies yet we're so different that it doesn't seem gay to mention it. Knowing other college drop-outs CAN have a decent job without needing that degree is a nice motivating factor. You also blog as you are in life which is a rarity for some of us. If I hadn't seen the TechEd videos I still think I could pick you out from a crowd just by hearing you speak. There's something about your way with words that is unique yet similar in a weird sort of way.

Honestly I don't think I'd ever unsubscribe because that'd mean RSS Bandit would delete the cache I have of your posts. I'm looking to keep them as long as RSS Bandit will function if not longer. I couldn't explain why because I really don't know exactly. I don't mean this in a bad way but it's not like you're someone special. You're just another human being like the rest of us going through much of the same motions reinventing the same wheels. It's clear that you are different though, not quite like some of us yet not all that much different. You're Rory, regardless of where you work or what you do you're Rory. Not many people can say that about themselves so I suppose that's why I'll keep reading. You define who you are and there's something about that I'm drawn to. I suppose it's my attempts to define myself outside of my work or that despite what I feel, most of us are really in the same position. I think it's harder for us to see it for ourselves though, so it takes us looking at others to know it is possible and maybe we're like that to.

Rory,

OK. Let's make it clear. You're not one of us. At least, you're not like _most_ of us. We are the dozens in the despair.com poster saying. You, OTOH, are the lonely guy in that saying. That's what your Technorati rating says.

But that's not it. How old are you ? 27 ? 28 ? Do you want to spend the next 50 years thinking 'I should have write the book back then. Now it's too late' because you don't want to lose what you have already gotten by now. _That_ would be foolish.

Please Rory, do yourself a favour and stop thinking about the what if's. Just do what you want to do! Because IT'S NOW OR NEVER ! If you can't make this kind of shift today, you won't be able to do it tomorrow, and even less the day after tomorrow. And you're just too damned young to retire.

Best of luck.

Serge.

PS: the despair.com poster says: 'For one winner, there are dozens of losers. Odds are you are one of them.'

Um... what did you say your name was?

Sorry. I think if you wrote fiction it would be sort of like Neal Stephenson without being as good or insightful as Neal Stephenson so everyone would just call you someone who wrote like Neal Stephenson yet isn't quite as good as Neal Stephenson. You wouldn't want that. Plus, Neal Stephenson would probably get pissed.

To Rory, and Mr. Jeremy B:

"You're Rory, regardless of where you work or what you do you're Rory. Not many people can say that about themselves so I suppose that's why I'll keep reading. You define who you are and there's something about that I'm drawn to."

Touche.

I would definetely put you in the unforgettable category Rory. I'd probably buy the book if it didn't suck.

Rory,

It depends. If your blogging hibernation falls in line with one of my coding tizzies where I haven't a second to read any blogs yet alone post any then go ahead with the book. However, if your blogging hiatus falls in line with one of my dull coding periods where I absolutely cannot get anything done unless I read 10 blog posts, check my email, and catch up on Javalobby musings first then I will have no choice but to forget about you entirely takining my daily patronage on 4 1/2 - 5 page request per day on to another equally interesting blogger. So in the end the decision is entirely up to you. I won't buy your book either way because I'm too damned cheap. By the way, do you know of where I can find another Rory clone? I've tried this guy here: http://jroller.com/page/Cliff
but he's just a Rory wannabe who rants about Java and Hip-Hop culture with run-on Rory like sentences that never gets to the point, completely switching conetxt/topics from the start of any posts.

Go for it Rory. I think you can definitely say that:

1. People read your blog because they like it.
2. You will probably be missed during a writing hiatus.
3. People will buy your book.

How many people... well, there's the rub. Maybe not enough to get you rolling in dough, but probably enough to cover the costs I'd wager. If you want to write it for the challenge and just to say you did it, do it. If you're looking to make lots of money out of it. hmmmmm... It's dicey.

Wil (http://wilwheaton.net) wrote two books so far and they've been rather successful and all but well. he's been on TV and stuff.

Hope that helps.