The Prelude

I'm better at beginning stories. This blog (henceforth weblog) is an entirely different exercise. When I begin a story, I begin with a solitary idea, a single scene. I give it room to grow, and the story practically writes itself. It's like the events therein have already happened, and I'm just there to pass the story along. This weblog, however, rests entirely in my dubious hands. It's beginning right now, and the rest lies in the murky and unpredictable future. I can't help but think that this is an unnecessary distraction. Nevertheless, for the better or worse of it, let me tell you why I'm here.

Motivation. It's something that characters need within a story, and it's something that a writer needs to transform that story into a manuscript. I'll write with or without this web site, I have for a while now, but additional motivation in the form of due dates (albeit set by myself and likely to be broken by myself), and certain expectations from outside parties (you, if you will), cannot be a bad thing (I'll eat my words later).

Circulation. Breaking into established literary markets is difficult, and as any aspiring or otherwise writer will tell you that's an understatement. I've submitted to traditional publishers in the past, and will continue to do so in the future, but in the mean time I would still like to open up some of my efforts to a place that's a little more public. To be less precise, I find a certain joy in sharing stories, and I have something special in mind for my small slice of the world wide web.

Feedback. This probably should have been item number one. Feedback is the fertilizer that helps a writer grow, to use a crude analogy. Receiving rejection letters from publishers in the past has sent me straight to my laptop, inspired to do better. Sharing stories with my writers' group, and hearing their invaluable feedback has only ever served to push me forward. I hope this web site, at least in some ways, becomes an extension to all of that.

In the long run, I suppose all I can do is try. There's only so much planning one can do before jumping out of a moving car. If you're here, reading this, then to you I say welcome, and I hope that there is some spark here that will keep you coming back. I invite you to join in and comment on the stories, the weblog, and whatever else becomes of this place. I might be a little slow with updates at first, this is rather new to me, after all, but the main event will (should) begin soon. You know what? No more stalling. Here it is, buried beneath all this text. There's a story brewing. More of a novel, really. I have it outlined, and I plan on sharing it chapter by chapter, right here, as they come. Bear with me just a little longer, and we'll get this endeavour started.