Dispatch #1: Doing the Work

Few things must annoy professional writers like the label “aspiring writer”.  Certainly there are those who deserve the title; those who are constantly scribbling or typing ideas for stories down, writing drafts, or just devouring stories for inspiration and guidance.  But there is a certain portion of people who call themselves writers who never actually get around to writing.  This seems to happen a lot in artistic fields, as no one could call themselves a lawyer just because they thought about law a lot.  Yet a portion of people in art claim to be a thing without actually doing it.  I have often been in this position.

I used to maintain a blog where I’d post TV reviews for popular genre shows.  It went on for about five years, although the last couple years I was less prolific and eventually stopped almost 2 ½ years ago.  But I’d still consider myself a writer of sorts, even though my output said otherwise.

Then came last November and the National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo.  I challenged myself to crank out a rough draft of a story I had been kicking around in my head for a few years.  I succeeded by writing over 50,000 of an unreadable pile of garbage, but one that had some potential of being readable a couple of drafts down the line.

The first couple of months this year have been defined by me outlining and re-outlining and drafting characters.  Doing this has lead me to a deeper appreciation for writers of any novel, especially those that are incredibly dense with casts of hundreds of characters.  But it hasn’t made me getting a second draft done any quicker.  Upon trying Camp Nanowrimo, another program they host in the spring, I hit a wall only a couple pages in and never recovered.  Maybe I am being hard on myself, as I am closer to calling myself a writer with no reservations than I ever was before.

Ultimately I want to shed the stigma of the “aspiring writer” by getting back in the habit of writing regularly.  This blog will be the stuff fit for public consumption: reviews, commentary, musings etc.  Also continue with my reading, which I have gotten back into the habit of doing.  Because in life, you can only aspire for so long.  Eventually you’ll have to put in the work.