So it turns out I'm not very good at blogging. It's been two months since I've posted here, and I feel bad about that. Not because I failed my many followers (two), but because I failed myself. I made a promise to post here on a regular basis, and I haven't kept to that. Part of the reason is because I feel like everything I write here has to be profound in some way and part of the reason is that blog writing is unlike any other kind of writing I’ve ever done, so when I do sit down to write a post, I’m calling on skills that are underdeveloped. But I'm trying to come to terms with the fact that posting something is better than posting nothing, so I'm making a new pledge to post something new every weekday until March 4th, the day before my birthday. It's not all going to be about writing, and not all of it is going to be good, but I'll do what I can. So if you're reading this, thanks for your patience, and wish me luck.
So if I haven't been posting here, what have I been doing for the last two months? Well, writing actually. Er, kind of. I did start a short story that I'm actually excited about writing, but in the two months I've been doing this I've managed to get only four thousand words down on actual (digital) paper. On the one hand, that's better than I've managed for the last few years. On the other hand, that sucks. I've noticed that I have no problem writing, I simply have a problem getting started. I’ll turn my computer on and check my E-mail, my Twitter, my regular online comics, and various other places I happen to like. Then I’ll notice that two hours have gone by and I’ll think to myself, “Gee, it’s not even worth starting now. I may as well just watch TV or play video games.” But today I realized that the days I actually do start writing have one thing in common; I start my music first.
The lesson here is that it’s important to get into the correct frame of mind before starting to write. I know, that’s not actually Earth shattering news for most people, and it’s even something that I’ve been told countless times. But the difference between being told something and learning it for yourself is an astoundingly large gap. If you’re someone who’s just starting out as a writer, like me, than there are probably quite a number of things that you’ve either been told or have read that you’re going to have to learn on your own anyway. It’s rather frustrating to know something, intellectually, and still not be able to apply it to what you’re doing until you actually feel it for yourself. I used to spend a lot of time reading books about writing and would be constantly annoyed that they never told me anything I didn’t already know. What I think I’ve always known, but didn’t want to believe, is that not only can other people only take you so far, but the first part of the journey you take on your own will look a hell of a lot like the landscape those other people just talked you through. You think you know the lay of the land, but until you’ve started surviving on your own you don’t really know anything.
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