Today is March 4, 2009. It has been 26 days since I began this blog, and I have written exactly zero posts since that original submission. What does that say about me being a writer? Hmmm.
Let me address the subject of excuses for a moment:
Excuse 1) I would be completely honest in saying that the last month has probably been on of the most--if not the absolutely most--stressful months of my life. In addition to some very challenging personal and home-life issues, I am in the midst of starting a new career as a voice actor. I certainly have had numerous reasons to be occupied by things besides maintaining a blog. The flipside of this coin is that I have also had some amazing things to write about, but have chosen to either ignore those topics or focus on other activities.
Excuse 2) I am a bit of a perfectionist about my creative endeavors. I want everything I do to be "the best" -- whatever that means. When it comes to writing, I have an incredible myriad of criteria to analyze my writing by, from purely grammatical issues to how well-written or humorous or entertaining or deeply meaningful a particular submission is. How could I post anything that isn't perfect? Maybe someone will think it's amateurish, or uninteresting, or--heaven forbid--badly edited! The result of this is that I so easily get bogged down worrying about whether whatever I intend to write will be worth reading that I often never get around to writing in the first place.
So what to do... Well, it seems to me that I need to take my own advice. In my first post I quoted Pearl S. Buck. Part of the quote read, "Your mind must know it has got to get down to work." It seems I need to stop worrying about whether my writing will be anygood, or what other pursuits I can get distracted by, and just write.
So that is what you get today. I just sat down and started writing. I don't think this is particularly interesting, and I don't expect anyone else out there will either, but it is words on a page, and that is good enough for now. Tomorrow I will write again, and we'll just see what happens. Until then...
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
In Principio...
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth; And the earth was without form and void..." (Gen. 1:1-2)
I have always considered myself a writer. Over the years I have written many things--usually in for some outside purpose (e.g. a school assignment) but occasionally in a moment of passionate creativity. I do not believe that I would be inaccurate in saying I have the talent for writing; most people who know me understand that I have a special facility for words and language.
But for a person who professes to love the art of words, language and literature, I have done precious little actual writing. This begs the question, "Can a person be a writer if he does not write?"
Many times I have spoken of the desire to someday write a science-fiction short story or novel, and I've had more than a few "brilliant" ideas. But for all my good intentions, the total substance of my creative endeavors over the past 15 years or so would fill only a few pages... and most of that is poetry that I wrote in my early 20s.
The time has come to change that. Why now? Well, the during the few months, and especially the last two weeks, I've had the opportunity to reexamine my life, to take a look at where I am and where I could have been, but more importantly where I could be.
I am not naturally disposed to playing the role of braggart, but I am aware that I have been particularly blessed with certain skills and intellect. I am a person with great potential for success or achievement.
But if I take an honest self-inventory, I haven't done a lot with that potential during my first third-of-a-century of life (or at least during the second half of that first third, which would be the second sixth... but I digress). As someone who's opinion I greatly respect recently reminded me, I could have a PhD by now if I had applied myself. But I don't. I'm in a comfortable but dead-end (no pun-intended) job. I have made no recent attempts to complete my formal education--I've only talked a lot about what I would like to do "someday," and set my aspirations aside while waiting for the right time, or enough money, or the proper mood.
Pearl S. Buck once said, "I don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work." You can't finish anything unless you begin in the first place. Now is the time to get down to it.
So recently I have taken the opportunity to make more than a few new beginnings. I've finally taken the step of actively pursuing one of my occupational dreams (Voice Acting), and next week I'm flying to New York to record my first demo. I've started concentrating on my nutritional and physical health by making some important changes to my diet and fitness habits, including joining a gym last week. And perhaps most importantly, I finally actively addressing a psychological stumbling block that has been particularly inhibiting to many aspects of my life
So here is another beginning. I've always wanted to be a writer, so now I am going to write. I don't have any idea what I'm going to write about yet. I don't know whether what I write will be interesting to anyone else, or even well written or worth reading. But it will be writing, and eventually, from this formless beginning, something will develop.
Exactly what that will be, we'll just have to wait and see. Until then...
I have always considered myself a writer. Over the years I have written many things--usually in for some outside purpose (e.g. a school assignment) but occasionally in a moment of passionate creativity. I do not believe that I would be inaccurate in saying I have the talent for writing; most people who know me understand that I have a special facility for words and language.
But for a person who professes to love the art of words, language and literature, I have done precious little actual writing. This begs the question, "Can a person be a writer if he does not write?"
Many times I have spoken of the desire to someday write a science-fiction short story or novel, and I've had more than a few "brilliant" ideas. But for all my good intentions, the total substance of my creative endeavors over the past 15 years or so would fill only a few pages... and most of that is poetry that I wrote in my early 20s.
The time has come to change that. Why now? Well, the during the few months, and especially the last two weeks, I've had the opportunity to reexamine my life, to take a look at where I am and where I could have been, but more importantly where I could be.
I am not naturally disposed to playing the role of braggart, but I am aware that I have been particularly blessed with certain skills and intellect. I am a person with great potential for success or achievement.
But if I take an honest self-inventory, I haven't done a lot with that potential during my first third-of-a-century of life (or at least during the second half of that first third, which would be the second sixth... but I digress). As someone who's opinion I greatly respect recently reminded me, I could have a PhD by now if I had applied myself. But I don't. I'm in a comfortable but dead-end (no pun-intended) job. I have made no recent attempts to complete my formal education--I've only talked a lot about what I would like to do "someday," and set my aspirations aside while waiting for the right time, or enough money, or the proper mood.
Pearl S. Buck once said, "I don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work." You can't finish anything unless you begin in the first place. Now is the time to get down to it.
So recently I have taken the opportunity to make more than a few new beginnings. I've finally taken the step of actively pursuing one of my occupational dreams (Voice Acting), and next week I'm flying to New York to record my first demo. I've started concentrating on my nutritional and physical health by making some important changes to my diet and fitness habits, including joining a gym last week. And perhaps most importantly, I finally actively addressing a psychological stumbling block that has been particularly inhibiting to many aspects of my life
So here is another beginning. I've always wanted to be a writer, so now I am going to write. I don't have any idea what I'm going to write about yet. I don't know whether what I write will be interesting to anyone else, or even well written or worth reading. But it will be writing, and eventually, from this formless beginning, something will develop.
Exactly what that will be, we'll just have to wait and see. Until then...
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