Day 0: One Step

The Journey Begins.

Up to this point, this blog has been for the purposes of posting fiction. It recently occurred to me that it wasn’t working very well. People who love fiction don’t read blogs, they read books.

When people read blogs, they want posts that are shorter than 1000 words, almost always. So I cut my stories into fifteen pieces so that nothing would be longer than it should have. But that doesn’t work because the story was written to be read in one go. Then what?

This last week, twice, someone has brought up the idea of e-publishing. Throw traditional publishing out the window and do it yourself. There are some things that are great about traditional publishing but there are some pretty terrible things as well. The company take more than half of the profit, since they’re taking the risk. But where does that leave the writer? It leaves him or her with an advance and not much more.

It seems that there are two significant downsides to publishing yourself. One, no marketing until you make it big (but that seems unlikely) and two no one to hold your hand as you go through it. The writer is the one who has to figure editing out for the most part but those are the only real downsides and who cares about money. If you’re only into writing for the money, then you aren’t going to make it. Period. People who think that writing is the best way to make money are more miserable than McDonald’s employees in NYC.

So where does that leave me? Where does that leave this blog?

Probably where most blogs end up. Not fiction but still interested in something. I’ll still post some fiction here but mostly it’ll be my journey in pursuing God and writing and life. I’ve got some good ideas for a book. Well two projects that I’ve been working on for some time. One of them will be a compilation of short stories. My goal is to publish that in ninety days. Well, 90 days. Either way we’ll see. Another is one that I’ve been working on for a year, on and off. One thing I will try to do is post every day about it. I’m not going to beat myself up over it if I don’t but it will almost be a journal but not quite. I like journey better.

God has been doing amazing things in my heart and I feel peace about this. As things come up, I’ll write about them. It seems like every celebrity and college age kid is talking about sexuality. That has been on my heart too. I’ve also got some ideas about manhood that my fingers have been itching to get to.

Peace
-Paul

BLOG IDEAS (Photo credit: owenwbrown)

A brief explanation

Over the next month I will be posting a short piece of flash fiction every other day. This is different from how I normally post stories. There are a couple of reasons for this. Because of the nature of this kind of story, I didn’t feel the need to give huge amounts of background for each piece. If you had any part of your childhood in the 90s or 2000s then you likely can relate to these pieces of fiction.

I remember when I was six or seven. The day care I attended would show parts of this saga. At the beginning of every episode, those of us who would watch always sang along to the intro song.

I want to be the very best,
Like no one ever was… 

I should say fan fiction. It is about Pokémon. There is no part of these characters that I own and there is no expectation to receive any kind of money or goods for these stories, they absolutely remain the author’s property.

That being said I had a blast writing these.

Most of my research is from here and here.

Enjoy.  

A Simple Seed

When I was six years old I brought home a tree from my Cub Scout meeting. We were told to plant them in our backyard and that some years later we would be able to enjoy the shade they made. At a very young age I stood above the tree and did not believe that it would ever be taller than me. Fifteen years later, I am wrong.

Diligence is dealing with things as they come. One at a time. It means doing something day in, day out. Regularly, even when you don’t feel it. For me that means writing. I am only happy if I am working on a writing project. Short stories are a nice breather for me but a novel is what I aspire to. No hall of fame is necessary but writing is a passion. Determination is a huge part of diligence. Sometimes that means working ahead but usually it means duck and weave. It means staying late and not settling. Persistence when all you can see is uphill. One. step. at. a. time. Determining that you will, regardless of circumstances.

It is easy when doing something great, to settle for good or fun. To look at dumb websites, like this and this. But really  I need to be writing. And if that means putting one word in front of the next, so be it. If that means paying the fees to enter writing into contests. Sometimes it means carving time out of things that are fun or good in order to write. You want to sleep? Too bad. Up you get and write.

“The beginning is half of every action.” – Greek Proverb

What should you be doing that you aren’t? What are you putting off? What do you want to be doing that you aren’t?

Image by wonenownlee