I’ve Been Thinking
I was up kinda late last night, thinking about what I’d write about today. No…make that over thinking about what to write. So I didn’t actually fall asleep until around midnight. After the fact, I probably should of gotten up and just wrote this damn post, but I didn’t, and now it’s 9:30 A.M. and I’m finally writing it. Let me warn you in advance that you might get snared in the babbling a bit.
So what did I think about. Mostly about not writing in this blog anymore. Lately I’ve seen a lot of posts in other blogs with advice on what to write in a blog. Number one (or maybe two 
), don’t write about yourself. I have to say I can’t argue with this way of thinking. I also have to say I glance over other blogs where people rant on like I was or just talk about themselves. This includes writing about the struggles of writing. It’s what I do for a career, right? So by writing about writing, I’m essentially writing about myself. Except of course if I’m writing about writing from a technical perspective, and guess what? There are lots of other people who write about writing and publishing, and I love reading their blogs, but I personally have no interest in doing it myself.
So I thought about how much time I spend blogging, yet again. If you’ve read my blog in the past, I’ve been complaining about this for awhile. And the answer is TOO MUCH TIME! I get sick to my stomach when I think about the amount of time lost on blog posts when I could be writing fiction. But, I’ve decided not to dwell on it. Reason? I also thought about popular writers who’ve written over ten books. Not many of them feel the need to blog regularly, yet here I am with three blogs. Well, technically two. The Courier’s blog is the actual book. Another reason I’ve decided to not sweat it is because I’m a toddler when it comes to fiction writing. I’ll admit I don’t like to always think of myself as such a youngling because I wrote nonfiction for so many years, but they are completely different animals. So trying to portray myself as a seasoned author or give advice about fiction writing really seems absurd considering I’m not even published.
I really sorta figured it out last night while finishing up the parts of Mary Kay’s book I wanted to read. These are some of the wisest words I’ve ever heard:
“We fail forward to success.”
I’m not a professional blogger. I’m a fiction writer. I want you readers out there to read my fiction, not my life story. So, struggling every week to add content to this blog is one of my failures because I’m not producing what I want you to read. Admitting your failures is a huge step, and so now I breath a sigh of relief and give up this blog. Well kinda. The whole format will basically change/return to a home base with links to my fiction accomplishments. Sorry, but this also means the Writer Wednesday Blog Hop ends, although I’ll add influential links as I find them.
So, in closing, I leave you to go do what I long to do…write fiction…
July 12, 2010
W J Howard
A few pages into Miracles Happen, The Life and Timeless Principles of The Founder of Mary Kay Inc., Mary Kay Ash tells a story about the responsibilities she had to take on during her childhood as a result of her father’s illness. At the age of seven she had to take care of the household while her mother worked long hours outside the home. I don’t know about you, but at the age of seven my greatest worry was the next outfit I’d put on Barbie. So reading her words, that her mother would “go through every step, one at a time, trying to think of everything I need to know. I hadn’t been raised to be a complainer, but I’m sure she knew that my job sometimes seemed overwhelming. Because when she was through with her instructions, she always added, ‘Honey, you can do it.‘” was inspirational in so many ways. Hearing those four words over and over again, day after day, how could she grow up and not succeed?
What better place to begin that looking to the future. Now that half the year is essentially over, I’ve decided to focus on my goals for the remainder of 2010. I did a crappy job of following through on ‘em the first half of this year and don’t want a repeat for the second half. So I’m sharing with you the start of the goals I’ve set.
No time to whine this week. Gotta finish up Bloodleggers part one early this week. Actually need to finish up part one and two before the end of the week. YIKES! We’re trying to get ahead by at least a month, and I’m holding up progress.
W. J. Howard is the author of the award winning novel, 
