Opening Thoughts

For whoever has found this journal for whatever reason, welcome.

As my writing career is actually beginning to resemble an actual career and not some fevered delusion of my mind, I decided to create a journal where I could share my thoughts about the process, rant about the incredible difficulty of the writing life, and basically have a writing oriented spot to talk about everything I'm working on.

A first thought for anyone who might be considering writing a novel, but find themselves intimidated or discouraged: Go to the nearest book store, find the section your book would be placed in, and scour the shelves until you find the two authors you'd be situated between. After years of "Oh, I'm going to write a novel," I did just that today, and there's something about making that commitment, about saying, this is where my book will go, that motivates you like nothing else.

Fourteen chapters to go before the first draft is done, and it's flowing like crazy right now. As for the journalism, my first ever article was the lead story in the Life section, and I got some nice compliments from my fellow staffers. While journalism certainly isn't my love in life, it's nice to have a paying writing job.