A Look to the Future

In my path to becoming an author phenom, I have decided a couple things.  One, Stephen King was probably right.  You have to read and write to get better.  I need to read more than I do.  It takes me longer than the average person to read a book.  A lot of that time is spent rereading what I have already read, making certain that every detail and nuance of the sentence is understood before moving on.  I also take the time to savor the mental picture, sloshing it around in my head like an expertly aged wine.  Writing more (A lot more, I say!) is critical in becoming better.  I write, but not like I used to.  There are greater and greater periods of my life when I have nothing to show for it on the page.  Unfortunately, that has nothing to do with the infamous writer's block and has everything to do with procrastination and placing other responsibilities in higher priorities.  And while responsibilities cannot be disregarded, I can make the conscious effort to be more available, even to the point of forcing myself, to my craft.

Which brings me to my second point, I have decided to try to freelance.  If I can't get my carcass off the couch and write because I enjoy it, then making money will have to suffice until the fire returns.  As I write this I realize how far I have fallen.  Writing used to be a desire and passion that drove my younger self to do some really fun projects.  It had fueled me since I was boy and my parents had found a word processor just for me.  I remember writing and saving my work on 3.5 floppies (which I understand will probably age me a little) while reading Stephen King's Rose Madder and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein at the same time.

I have always seemed to know what I wanted to do.  And now I feel ashamed, if only a little, because I could not at this time bring myself to speak with that boy.  I couldn't bear to see his tears as I tell him that I never published anything, that I barely have finished writing any story or that I never finished telling that first story he had started so very long ago on that hand-me-down word processor.  I want to remedy that.  Today there has to be a change.  There has to be a change in how I do things.  In how I live life.  In how I transpose my thoughts and feelings and concerns onto the blank page before me.  And it has to begin today because I have seen too many todays become yesterdays with nothing to show for them.