Welcome
back. Glad to see you all successfully made the transition to 2021.
Crap, I mean 2022. Anyway, for me, it's been new year, new computer.
Which really meant two days setting up said computer after two weeks
of stressing over a new word processing program.
But
that's all in the past now.
Normally
I’d post this start-o’-the-year ramble (or any other post) on Thursday. But
that’s one of the things I want to change up this year (more on
that below). Plus there’s a chance tomorrow
might be a little chaotic this year (and that chaos could come in
many forms and/or directions), so I figured I’d get this out a
little early.
And what is this, you ask?
Well,
the ranty blog’s about writing advice. It used to be a lot more ranty, but I’ve tried to mellow out over the years. I
always wanted this to be a more positive place for aspiring writers
and I’m always trying to bend things that way. Less “don’t do
that” and more “try to do this,” if that makes sense? A lot of
times I’ll revisit a topic just so I can do it from that angle.
The
ranty blog’s also about a little bit about motivation. Helping you
to sit down and get those words out. Maybe suggesting some
easier ways to do something. Maybe giving you a little challenge or a
tip or a trick to play with when your brain’s stuck on whatever.
I’ve tried to do this a few times and a few different ways. For a
lot of folks, the biggest, toughest part of writing is actually
sitting down and writing, so I’m here to give you the occasional
firm kick in the butt. Or a gentle one. Whatever works best for you.
I
suppose at this point it's also fair to say I use this space for self
promotion. Not a lot--I don't want to be that guy shoving a book in
your face every five minutes--but when the time comes, we do what we need to do. And, y'know, I do have a new book
coming out in a few weeks so.... be prepared for that.
Finally,
if I’m doing this right, I’m giving you a little reassurance.
There’s so much information flying around out there. We can go
looking for it or just get smacked in the face with it on social
media. How fast and productive this person is. What a great deal they
got. How easy this was for them. It's easy to see something like this
and feel like I must be doing something wrong. I mean, if I'm not
writing 3000 words a day and I struggle with dialogue and I don't
understand structure at all... maybe this just isn't for me? Hell, I
only wrote 15,000 words for NaNoWriMo last year, so I must be
screwing this up somehow...
If
any of this sounds familiar... don't worry about it. Seriously.
Hopefully I can convince you you're not wrong, you haven't screwed
up, and you should definitely keep at this. Again,
everybody approaches this a little differently, and just because
somebody's faster or finds this part easier or accomplished that
quicker doesn't necessarily mean we need to change how we're doing
things.
(The Broken Room, available this spring at your favorite local bookstore,
chain bookstore, or monolithic online retailer)
And
if you've made it this far, a couple changes in the weeks ahead. I'm
probably going to be posting a bit more... well, erratically. Still
at least once a week, but it won't always be on Thursday. That was
just kind of an arbitrary day and more than a few times I've felt
kind of stuck and that a few things stumbled because of it. So watch
for posts, y'know, whenever. Still probably a lot on Thursday, but
other days, too.
Also...
I may finally be migrating the ranty blog over to my own webpage--
PeterClines.Com . It's just kind of been sitting there for years and
I want to get better about keeping it updated and making it somewhere
for people to actually visit, y'know. Plus, that way the ranty blog's
a little more under my own control and not subject to the whim of
some corporation. I'll make sure you all know if it happens.
And
I think that's everything. Any questions? Comments? Requests?
Next
time I'm probably going to talk about the people driving this thing.
Until
then... go write.
