In The Beginning...
Somehow it all comes back to the first blog post and never seems to get much beyond that. I have lost count of the number of times I have “started” a new blog only to lose interest after a few weeks and move on to something else. Not that it matters all that much. I am not relying on this to make a living, or push customers to buyinig my books or whatever – not yet anyway. It just seems that every year or three right about this time I get the urge to set up a blogging platform of some kind and just write.
I could be taking this seriously but the reality is I rarely take anything seriously and I like it like that. I don’t see the point in stressing over things when a small amount of effort and planning will see that most things will get done eventually, and provided they are not necessary for one’s continued existence, in the time frame they need to be done in.
This does not mean I don’t take writing seriously. It is the main way I think about and deal with the world. Some people will draw out their ideas in doodles or sketches, others play a musical instument when trying to work out a difficult challenge. I write.
Some days it will be a paragraph at best, other I try for at least 1000 words and often exceed that. The trick isn’t the number of words, it is the frequency of the writing. Writing every day strengthens your ability to write. It isn’t too much different to a runner training for a marathon. When they first start running they may be lucky to make it to the first mile marker. A few months later after training ion a regular basis they are running a 5K circuit and soon after half then full marathons. I use to think that writing short stories was a completely different form of writing to writing a novel – and it is. I also cou;dn’t see the point of learning to write short stories if what you really wanted to write was a novel, or a series of novels.
The advantage to learning to write short stories, if you want to become a novelist, is that it teaches you about story, setting, characters and the like in a form that encourages brevity. the one thing you do not have time for on a short story is a side venture that has very little to do with the story being told. In fact that side venture will make a short story in its own right and that is where it belongs. It also gives the writer a training ground to write longer, more complex stories. A short story can become a novella then a novel and sometimes a series of novels. Once you have written the first million words of so you may be oin the road to learning to be a writer.
Reading back on what I have written so far is giving me imposter syndrome. I have yet to finish a novel. I have published more than a few articles in specialist journals and have even publish one or two short stories. I guess the thing is that this is as much about my exploration of writing a novel as it is in sharing my insights into writing as a pass-time, therapy and way of making a living. I guess this blog is as much a journal and a record of that journey as it is a way to get my presence on the Internet out there and eventually build an audience to the point that when I do publish my first novel I will have some people to market it to who will hopefully buy it. Buit that won’t be a while yet as I have yet to conquer plotting in long form writing and there arte too many bright and shiny distractions out there for my liking.
That is all.