Okay, so maybe not the most imaginative title I could conjure… but I did warn you all yesterday, didn’t I?
Welcome! So, I’ve struggled to maintain this blog for a few of years now. At its inception, I had the desire to write on the blog all the time… like at any given moment, whenever the fancy struck me, whenever inspiration tugged at me… and then reality imposed itself. Life’s life, and no matter how hard you try — life’s going to assert its dominance on one’s time regardless of what one desires. My realities are these: I work full time, I have two kids, I have a wife, I have a desired to write fiction in a recreational capacity; also mix in the usual assortment of obligations that come with the “adulthood” status. I had to compromise if I wanted to keep writing my blog (which I certainly do… I don’t like to disappoint my audience of bots), and my compromise was to schedule a specific day on which to write a blog entry. My chosen day was Friday because I’m off of work on Fridays, and the kids are at school, and my wife was generally engrossed in something which allowed me enough time to sit at the computer and bang out a blog entry. Quick side note: I’m not blaming anyone here; I’m not pointing fingers. Whether or not the blog gets done is on no one but me, I’m simply enumerating my circumstances for the sake of comprehension… filling in the back story, as it were. Got it? With me so far?
Over time, Friday got crowded with errands and, before long, Friday officially became our errand day all for exactly the same reasons why Friday used to work best as my blog day: we’re off from work, the kids are at school, and everything we need to accomplish our errands is open and available. Makes sense, right? To complicate matters: in 2013 I started running an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game every other Friday night. This would be the Friday Night game — the D&D history campaign — I’ve discussed in this blog and about which I’ve written, probably, a lot more than anyone cares to know. The real exercise here, regardless of the topic about which I’m writing, is the act of writing itself. The real exercise is the writing and the adherence to a schedule. Those have been my goals all along and the report card says I’ve failed miserably… and I am not proud.
When I write during NaNoWriMo, I’ve used this blog as a way to document my progress for posterity and my own amusement… but at the moment, it doesn’t look like I will participate in NaNoWriMo this year (rather, I will use the time I normally set aside for the NaNoWriMo challenge, and instead work on the nearly four novels worth of material I’ve already generated and then, for various reasons, ignored). Outside of NaNoWriMo, I go rant-tastic and write about whatever strange and frenzied things enter my mind… and about those things over which I geek out. I think that’s a pretty decent use of this space… I just need to recommit to doing it regularly and not allow the lapses to become more frequent than the postings… although I’ve read in a number of places that one shouldn’t write in his/her blog unless he/she has something to say… or something to write about… but I’m pretty convinced there’s no right or wrong way to do this, and I’m mostly happy with the idea of making it all up as I go along.
I’m not enamored enough of social networking (or public sharing) to use the “open a vein and start writing” approach which is popular with many bloggers; nor do I lead an interesting enough life to regale everyone with my adventures, travels, and/or discoveries. I have no political agendas to promote, and nothing to sell. I started the blog as a way to share the wisdom I acquired as I attempted to improve my fiction-ing skills but I soon discovered the preponderance of superior blogs which dispense far greater advice than I could ever share. I’m not a fan of redundancy… especially not where that redundancy doesn’t serve a necessary purpose. My only advantage is that what I write comes from my own personal experience, and perhaps, if that experience is meritorious enough to even one person, this blog may yet accomplish what I wanted it to accomplish in the very first place; however, I sincerely doubt my own abilities of profundity and that brings us full circle to nowhere.
There’s a lot I want to say about creativity, about art making, about storytelling, about the creative mind and soul, about the way things look funny when you stare at them too long… especially words… but even concepts and ideas. There’s a lot I want to say about the various traps and dead ends I’ve encountered… about the hazards to which I’ve fallen victim and which have changed the way I do things as fundamental as eating. I like writing about the things I geek out over. I like writing about the things I read. I like writing about the things I drink and eat. I like writing about weird shit, because weird shit is all around us all the time and we’re often too busy to notice it happening. I like writing about people’s and organization’s attempt to fuck us over… but I don’t want to turn into that weird, paranoid motherfucker who doesn’t wash and who wears a tinfoil hat to keep the government from scanning his brain.
So I guess what I’m trying to say is this: Fuck it, it’s my blog — I do what I want! (thanks, Michelle). Just like my hobby novel-ing, I’ll keep doing it as long as it’s fun. Once it ceases to be fun, I’ll find some other shit to do. Want to come along for the ride?
Yeah, I think Saturdays will work. Cheers!
The Write Experience 