I’ve done it. I’ve created a legitimate blog with a .com domain name. Not a free or anonymous blog that no one can find, but an exposed place to showcase my work.
I have wanted to be a writer for a long time now. Probably since high school, if not earlier. The problem is, the world is full of people who want to be writers but not many who can actually cut it. Maybe they write a good short story or two and their creativity fizzles out. Or they have no shortage of characters to write about but can’t seem to form a functional sentence on the page. At any rate, it’s clearly more of a “I want to be a X” professional than a “I am a X” profession.
My issue is no different, but it may be exasperated by my so called skills as a writer. I have, in fact, written a few good things. A clever college essay; a funny short story in Spanish; rhyming poems for christmases and birthdays. I have been told, by relatives whose opinion I’m skeptical of and others with absolutely no stake in my success, that I have talent for writing, and as a result I have a bit of an inflated head. It just seems so easy!
Beyond that, I love to read. I read Dan Brown, and Malcolm Gladwell. Agatha Christie and Joan Didion. Tom Clancy and JK Rowling. My appetite for books, coupled with my proficiency as a writer, make me confident I could, in fact, be a Writer with a capital W. Someone who makes millions off of YA fiction (which I’ve read so much of!). Someone who pens clever stories and publishes terse letters to the editor. It is so easy, when you can appreciate a beautiful sentence, to see yourself in the author’s shoes!
What I am finding, years into my so-called, half-baked foray into writing, is that there is a gulf of talent, grit and determination that spans between good writers (and readers) and professional Writers. I wish it weren’t the case. I wish I could read a few popular YA novels – like Percy Jackson, Red Rising, Allegiant – and just repeat the formula, like some factory worker. There was certainly a point a few years ago when I was cocky enough to think I could do just that.
The last half year of me attempting to write has taken that hubris and ground it into the dirt. Writing is hard. Even if it weren’t hard, setting aside time to write is hard. And following through on an idea is hard. Picking back up a story is hard, and maintaining your train of thought is hard. I think the only thing I really learned is how hard it is to be a writer, let alone one of professional caliber. Imagine that – I thought making money as a writer seemed relatively easy, but I can’t even write.
That is my main motivation for starting a blog. Hopefully someday the blog will be a home for some of my better writing. Maybe one day it will be the blog of a professional writer, or *drumroll* successful author. Until then, I’m hoping the financial obligation of paying for the domain name and my ability to share the link with friends and family will instill a bit of accountability in my work and do something to jumpstart my writing.
Here goes a new stage in my journey as a writer.