Interestingly enough, a WordPress installation will use the term Hello World as the subject of a new install’s first blog post. Displaying the term ’Hello World’ is traditionally one of the first tasks that a programmer does when learning a new computer language. It proves that he can output through their control of code to anyone that can see it, a primal message of sorts.
I had originally thought I would just delete the post and create a fresh new one. The more I thought about it though, this is my first post for my blog. Am I not sending out my primal message to the world that here I am, see me, read me? I can control code, in this case, words, to send out a message.
Hello World. I write fiction too!
Over the last few months, I’ve been extremely focused on listening to audiobooks, while driving, and reading books, not while driving, about writing fiction. Not just on the craft of writing but also on how to sell your writing. This blog is to be a cornerstone of the marketing of my books. The books that I will write, anyways.
This would be a boring blog if that was all it did. Hey there, I wrote this book about this one guy that is trying to avoid getting killed by this other guy. A fun read, here is the link to buy the book! Yeah, that would go over really well, I can just hear the jingle of coins now. Right.
I put together words to influence people
I wordsmith most of the day in emails, proposals, and various forms of documentation. All-day, all the time. But it isn’t fiction. Or at least the people reading them are not supposed to think it is fiction. I used the term wordsmith very intentionally, I put together words very carefully to influence people.
But isn’t that what a fiction writer does? Does she not put together words to influence her readers, to make them feel something, to make them want to read more, to have some kind of relationship? I think so.
I have a manuscript that I started a decade or so ago and I’m about 45,000 words into what I plan to be a novel of 90,000 words. As I started to review it, I fell in love with it again. The story, I believe is solid, exciting, and has a bunch of twists and turns. The main characters are real to me. And then I started studying the fiction-writing craft and have to come to the steadfast conclusion that I have a 45k word outline of a story that is just not written that well.
That is all on me. As I’ve honed my wordsmith skills over the years, I think my writing has matured. As I apply what I’m learning about writing fiction, I recognize that the manuscript still needs a ton of work. I’ve already rewritten the first chapter a dozen times and I’m still not that happy with it.
This first blog post is the start for me to share my journey
And that is what I plan to write about in this blog. My journey to becoming a fiction writer. A paid fiction writer. But even more importantly, a fiction writer that people want to read more from because they got something rewarding from something that I wrote.
