“Here’s where clam fishin’ gets serious!” ~ Mr. Krabs
Starting in September, I hope to do more with this blog than I have thus far. I have a BA in English, a brain full of ideas, and a blog that is just begging for me to do more doodling than I have thus far.
Why haven’t I done more?
One word: procrastination.
As I’ve sad before, “Of all of the things I could go “pro” in, why did I choose this?” I’ve yet to understand the roots of why I keep on putting off seriously writing (I did a 24 articles in 24 hours thing last year for my Helium account, and while it was semi-painful, it was fun to challenge myself). I also have to deal with the ideas disappearing as soon as I sit down to commit them to text.
Maybe, deep down, there’s a part of me that still thinks I don’t deserve to be successful and prosperous doing something I love.
And maybe there’s a part of me that is afraid of what will happen when I do become successful and prosperous doing something I love. Maybe there’s something in me that is scare that I’ll sell one great story, and that will be it. Maybe I’m worried that my work will become formulaic and boring, just as it has for one of my favorite science-fiction/fantasy writers and his most popular and longest-running series to date. Maybe I feel like everything I’ve written or thought about has already been done. “Why bother reinventing the light bulb?” I ask myself.
And now that I think about that question, I think I have an answer: reinventing the light bulb has given us light bulbs of various types and strengths. Some light bulbs are meant to work with floodlights; others work best in chandeliers. Some bulbs cast a bright light; others are incredibly energy-efficient. Thanks to people reinventing the light bulb, we have incandescent, fluorescent, LED, and Heaven knows how many other varieties of light bulbs, each one suited to meet various, different needs. A fluorescent bulb wouldn’t work nearly as well in an old-school easy bake oven as an incandescent bulb did, and a floodlight bulb would look horribly out of place on a chandelier.
And that is why I need to keep on writing: while the ideas I may have may have been covered by other, better authors, my thoughts and plans for my characters and worlds are going to take them in directions that other authors may not have thought of or used. My life and experience, my hopes and dreams, everything about me becomes part of my narrative. While my work may just become a footnote on a forgotten tv tropes page, it will still be unique because it is mine.
That being said, keep an eye on this space. Ideas, they are a-comin’.