Well another weekend has come and again I'm at home. Don't get me wrong I don't hate being at home but for some reason I can't help but feel like I could be doing something more. I don't have to go to the bar but why do I keep going back to that train of thought. Most likely because its what I would have done in my younger days. There are other things to do, go see a movie, go to a concert or see live music. The point is that there are alot of things that I could be doing instead of sitting at home blogging. One thing that I don't mind doing on the weekend is homework, well kind of homework. You see I visithttp://chuckpalahniuk.net often and often enough to pay for premium membership. With a premium membership I get access to essays and written works from other aspiring writers and I must admit that most of them put anything that I have submitted to shame. There is alot of talent out there and these people are hungry for it. They WANT to be writers. Well back to the essays, I am still reading them and there are exactly 36 of them to read. If you are a fan then it is definitely something to consider. In these essays there are assignments or points to ponder and considering that I want to bolster my writing portfolio doing a few assignments really helps. So for those interested please visit my personal blog and feel free to comment, heck I would appreciate a visit from other writers (aspiring or other.) You can visit it here: http://normal-blood.blogspot.com/ Thanks for taking the time and let me know if I can visit YOUR blog sometime. I think as a community it is important that we help each other out. Thank you and enjoy your weekend
As the impending doom of my birthday approaches I realize I no longer wish to age. As I grow older it seems that things are slipping from my grasp. No, I'm not that old, not even old enough for a midlife crisis but at 30 I feel that I haven't really done anything important. It feels like the seven years I spent in the Army was stolen from my life. I didn't particularly hate the Army nor did I really enjoy it. My parents say they were proud of me but for some reason I don't care. When I first got to Afghanistan there was a stigma that American soldiers were somehow unintelligent (I mean no offense by this) I was soon schooled by them. Having them lead us around their area of operation but there was something glaring that I couldnt quite place my finger on. What was it that I couldn't place my finger on you ask? It was this: Here I was looking at 18-23 year old men, they had learned some very hard lessons and had to grow up real fast. In my own platoon there were 43 year old soldiers and unaccustomed to the deed of battle. I wonder if that is what I look like now to people my wife invites over. Do they see a 30 year old unaccomplished individual? Most likely not because we don't keep those types of friends - superficial ones- at least to my knowledge. I will never have a clever saying to sum it all up, to sum up my life. Heck I cant even think of a few clever sayings to be witty. I do love the written word though. I realize that through written word my life can pass on to my children. That some of my life lessons can assist them. Imagine the past where there were no cameras, no digital age. If your mother or father died before you were born, it was up to some one else to describe them to you. There was no 'proof' so to speak. I forgot what the main reason for me writing all this was. Its just a blog, something maybe that someone else will read and can learn from. Maybe not, hell with twitch of your finger you can pass all this by, my plea's will be nothing but a memory.
So after just having posted in my own blog that doesn't have that many followers, I sometimes feel left drained that all the creative juices have already been splattered all over the screen on my tiny macbook. So to be fair to myself I dont think I've been giving an honest effort to writing, I mean I write the occasional story now and then but it seems to end there, if you were to google 'freelance writing job' you may come across a site called "journalismjobs.com. As you can imagine its filled with postings of requests for skilled and talented writers from all walks of life. I've come to the conclusion that if I want to be taken seriously as a writer then I MUST bolster my writing portfolio. So it begins, I write opinion pieces, journalism, I even write about my day at the farmers market. Writing reviews for movies and television shows as well can help me out.
So I haven't been around for a very long time, long enough for me to feel that writing was just a "phase" or something that I needed to get out of my system so to speak. But I feel that to become a writer (even an amateur one) that you should read, and I looked at my reading materials past and present. I wasn't pleased, its not that I was reading absolute trash but these weren't the type of books that you would expect to find in a budding authors collection. Now to say that I am a budding writer may be giving myself to much credit, I manage to write for 2 of my personal blogs (not that it is some great feat) and I have only been brave enough to have my work rejected once. So now I think I have every Palahniuk book (I only need a few to complete the collection) among some other interesting titles. For one I have a book called "Under the Black Flag" as you can Imagine its about pirates and for some reason they have always fascinated me, I always felt that the pirate life was over- romanticized and I wanted to get a deeper feel for how they operated. The book was ok, and I learned quite a few things about pirates and the most infamous ones, but it lead me to another book. Treasure Island. I remember having the book read to me as a child, and being a child I think I failed to absorb what was going on, I can hardly remember the main characters or the plot. I am still reading the book as we speak and I managed to find a copy that was the old cloth bound style, I really appreciate this style mind you. So what is the point of this blog post you may ask? Nothing...well not exactly, my point being is that I am now 29, when did I stop being a boy? I still enjoy doing boyish things mind you. I still jump in the pool, eat PB&J, whine when I have to do chores and I will avoid cleaning my room to no end! I think this brings me back to my initial point, I wrote because I am still a boy at heart. I still want to dream of wondrous events and places. I want to try to envision the impossible still. But more importantly I still have my wits about me, and one day I may not be so "put together" I may want to be able to look back on my youth and say "these are the words I wrote and I am proud" my children will read them and hopefully be able to get a sense of what my life was about. Well I think I have rattled on for long enough and if you have read this then I thank you and I promise to make a concerted effort to be here and read more great amateur material.
I'm new to the game, I get that. There are some very talented works here and it's all part of the experience, learning from your peers is part of the experience of writing. I must admit that in my rush to learn that I strayed to other websites. Its no big crime, looking at another site I did come across another site called my writers circle that you can look at here.http://www.mywriterscircle.com/index.php It's very much like this site but there are small differences, for one they don't MAKE you review other peoples work so that you can in turn have your work reviewed. Just to be clear I think that this is a bad thing, I think that maybe we don't review each others works enough, I'm certain that people have just signed onto the site hoping to get their work reviewed ASAP but are annoyed at having to review other peoples works. Of course there are exceptions to the rule, there are always exceptions, in my short amount of time here I've noticed people that contribute constantly in all aspects. I digress (always wanted to say that) what I am trying to say is that at this other site, they post more jobs for budding writers, hell even jobs for experienced writers that are trying to get that first book deal done. Being the curious fellow that I am I looked at this page, it was almost immediately that I was taken aback at all the opportunities for new and upcoming writers. It was almost like the wild west, bounties offered for various pieces ranging form erotic to Christian. There were so many bounties being offered that I felt out of my league. Then I took a breath, I realized that I dont want to just take odd jobs for fame, although I would love to share my work with the world and get paid for it. I realized i didnt start writing to take $50 here and there, I wrote because it meant something. I do admit that there is a romantic idea about being a wild wordsmith and taking odd jobs here and there. I think that the purpose may be lost taking these odd jobs. Then again we all have to eat! So with that being said, maybe we are in the wild west of cyberspace, maybe one day I'll be staring at the other end of one of you guys or girls! Take care all and keep on writing, if you want to look at more of my work have a gander here http://normal-blood.blogspot.com/
Well I posted my first story here, I originally wrote it for a E-zine called divine dirt quarterly (http://www.divinedirtquarterly.com/). I enjoyed some of the smaller stories there, it just seemed that the authors were able to create a world that let my imagination take where ever I wanted to go. I think in the 500 words or so they did a great job and I wanted to see what I could do in that amount of space. I submitted a story called 'Teeth' in which I was trying to create a little story about anything, after reviewing it over and 2 revisions then editing myself then having my spouse edit it, I finally felt prepared to have it poked and prodded by the folks on the internet. One glaring mistake, I used 'light year' as a measure of time (duh), I hope it didn't ruin the story (there wasn't much of one to begin with.) I guess that will show me for my overconfidence I think more due diligence next time and just some overall practice would be helpful in the future.
Well I already have 2 of my own blogs and I don't really mind writing in a third. I guess this can be dedicated to the works that I post here. Admittedly I haven't had the courage to post here other than one short story contest. The reason I began writing in the first place started with therapy, I found that I could articulate my thoughts on paper in a way that I seemed to make sense. I wrote about my experiences in the army and even other experiences that my therapist thought pertinent. I love gritty and real writing, and taking criticism is a whole new animal to me. I would love to get as much practice as I can and I have no Illusions about writing. My understanding is that it can be a cruel and punishing world, sometimes filled with emptiness and constant critiques. I read in 'Outliers' that to be truly great at something 10,000 hours is the magic number, I love to write so I think someday I'll get there. If you want to check out some of my creative writing you can check it out here:http://normal-blood.blogspot.com/