I Am Now That Which I Taunt

I loathe blogs for some reason or another. In fact, I actually tend to agree with the highly intelligent (yet woefully belligerent) Maddox on this issue, something which I'm not sure I'm really all that happy about. Either way, I am doing something that I have always taunted, so any defense against the title of "hypocrite" is forfeit.

I do, however, have good reason to have made this, which is why I have allowed myself to do so. Two reasons, actually, which I will describe here, as all blogs seem to do in their usually innocent first posts. These reasons are as follows:

1. To (hopefully) provide useful information to aspiring writers as I go along my own path to becoming a paid, full-time writer (more on this later).

2. To put additional pressure on myself to write since "the blog demands it."

It is by these excuses for this "blogging" that I feel I have full right to post here, unlike most blogs which seem to be concerned with the particular author's opinion on something they're not really all the qualified to talk about in the first place. Armchair anythings upset me greatly (though I do admit to being called an armchair historian, tactician, warrior, and scientist). This is not the intent here.

I will now, however, explain what the intent is and why I have said intent, in reverse order:

As is the title of this blog, I am now an unpaid, full-time writer. This changed from being a writing enthusiast to my current status last Sunday when I finished out my final day of being a "Computer Accessory Salesman," which is, of course, a fancy way of saying that I moved boxes and explained the finer points of corded and cordless devices to the unknowing. Anyways, I'm now unemployed in the traditional sense and have only one class to attend to (which is only a one-hour-a-day, two-days-a-week endeavor) for the next four weeks, leaving me with a stupidly large amount of free time. This free time is intended to be filled with writing and fun (in that order) in order to realize two of my life goals: having a career in writing and always enjoying life. Both of these goals are lofty, to be sure, but I suspect that was my hidden motive for creating them in the first place.

To clarify what I mean when I say the word 'writer' (which is honestly a terrible blanket statement I should never make, but do so often) in relation to myself, I will explain what kind of writing I do and am (in my dream of a perfect future) going to build a career out of. I write Science Fiction, which is another term which I am going to attempt to do away with using, but am finding very difficult to replace with the better term of 'Speculative Fiction' as it often confuses the laymen (and laywomen, let's not get sexist now) I talk with about such things. So, I suppose, from here on out, SF or Speculative Fiction are to be my titles of choice for what I write. So, back on that track, I write SF short fiction, which encompasses short stories and novellas mostly. I dream of someday writing a novel or many, but that is a long way off. I prefer short fiction anyways because it allows for the exploration of a single idea or problem without the threat of it becoming stale or muddled with the implications of others. Short fiction can, of course, span many different areas of interest, but it still retains that ability to be singular, which I enjoy.

Now, on to intent. Seeing as how my short term goal is to become a paid, full-time writer, I have a number of steps that I must take, many of which I currently know nothing about and am gathering all information and research I can. This journey from amateur writer to (hopefully) published author is going to be a difficult one, to be sure, but I feel as though all the toil I will go through will not be an exclusive experience. Much to the opposite, I think that I will be following in the footsteps of many of the most successful (and otherwise) in the field and that many will come after me, or with me, or whatever sort of time-based image you can put to that idea. So, there is good chance that everything I learn can be of use to others who dream of "sailing the craft" and actually getting paid to do it. It is to that end (and also of possible exposure and pressure to write) that I find myself willing to become that which I taunt: a blogger/bloggist/person with an opinion and a keyboard. Hopefully that which is useful will spill out here and, if not, any readers I may collect over time will hopefully tell me as such so I can avoid that pesky "hypocrite" title.

-Kendle "Blogger" Kelley