The Second Attempt: Why Blogging?

I don't want to be that blogger who posts six times a day about the most inane shit. I really don't. So don't expect it. But I need to put this down on paper so I have it up to see and you know if you bother to read through the archives and stumble upon it.

I have no real need to blog. I write. I work on my novels. That's my career. My day job is in an office doing office work to make money. I'm on the computer all day. I don't need MORE computer stuff to take up my time. And yet here I am, wanting to start a blog and really get into it and do something about it. I don't know what it is, exactly. But I have a few ideas.

My motivation to become a 'real' writer has skyrocketed lately. And by that, I mean a published author who makes money and has deadlines and works with agents and editors and whatnot to get his books out to as many people as possible. It went from being a dream to a passion. Writing is all I think about, even when I think about other things. It's scary how quickly it has absorbed my life.

I have other creative interests, though. I want to do so many things, and have so little time to do them. I want to paint. I want to draw. I want to compose music. I do none of these things because I need to make a career out of the writing first and then I'll go and do those other things. That's what's important, focusing on one thing and doing it and then going out and doing those other things.

Two of my other creative interests are getting the better of me, though. For a long time I've wanted to do a podcast, and I've also wanted to do a webcomic. I'm not doing either, though I may talk about them later. Instead, I have this. Why do I have this? That's really the point of this post: why am I blogging when I write novels? What's the point? There has to be a purpose.

Well, my purpose is multifold (I don't know how many and I'm not going back and fixing it later): first, I want to hopefully reach out to people through my writing. I'm doing that with the novels but that's on a big, long-term scale. This is more intimate and immediate. Nobody knows this exists, but maybe that'll change in time. Who knows?

Second, I want a vent for my artistic frustrations and thoughts. I get so many random ideas, and I become so full of exuberance, that I just have to share it sometimes. It helps to be able to put it all in one place and make it a testament to me. Not to mention it stops it from trying to invade my novels.

Third, I would like to provide a chronicle of what it is to be a struggling, working writer, just starting out on the long road to hopefully making it. I want this to include all the ups, all the downs, all the hard patches and good times and victories and defeats that I'm going to go through. More on my writing some other time, but maybe if I show this to people they will learn and understand and be compelled or something. Sharing the experience is what it's all about, right? People love to read about getting published, right? I'm going to be trying that impossible task myself, so why not have other people enjoy and empathize with me in time?

Fourth, if I ever do build up a successful novelling career, or a podcast, or a webcomic, I want some way to connect with people who are interested. I don't want to be the faceless, soulless man behind the curtain who offers up things from afar every once in a while. I want people to know where I'm coming from, to feel what it's like, to maybe share life with me while I share it with them. This is my public forum, I hope, in a way that my novels shouldn't be (they're much more abstract and deep) my podcast wouldn't be (if I ever do it, it'll be alternatively whiney and random) and my webcomic would never dream of doing (the webcomic could be summed up with the word 'whimsy').

Fifth, since I'm not doing the podcast for at least a year and the webcomic for at least two, this lets me get out there and share RIGHT NOW in a way that's meaningful. I can write, I can write to people, and I can reach out and touch them with my stories and thoughts and whatnot, and maybe in time they'll start responding to me.

Sixth, final but not last in my thoughts, I'm a very lazy person. But the more scrutiny I invite into my life--the more goals I set for myself where people can see them and they can pressure me to follow them--the more likely I am to keep to them. If I say I'll blog regularly, and I get some readers, I'll blog regularly. If I say I'll keep to a wordcount goal each week, and I have someone to keep a watch on it, I will make that wordcount goal come hell or high water. So eventually, if this ever gets out into the world at large, I will gain a lot from this on a bunch of levels.

That's all for now, I think. I'm terrible with formats and whatnot and everything, but I really want this site to look nice, so I might be fiddling with layouts and formatting on and off for the next forever. I have a friend who does abstract photography who I might be able to convince to let me use some of his photos (out of the goodness of his heart) to help prettify my journal. He'd get a permanent nod, too, so it's all good. =D

We'll see. I want to make it look pwn. I want it to be me. I want an awesome graphic on the top that is a huge stage with lights pouring down and a silhouette of a lone figure standing there. And then the rest to be black. And then the title of the blog to be in white script in the blackness. Though, I don't think I want to blog to be black, so I'll have to put some sort of fancy border around it. I dunno yet. I might be able to smooze some friends, and if not I'll just have to learn how to do it myself (as painful as that sounds).

Tomorrow's topic: NaNoWriMo and the awesomeness that was my first frantic November experience.