Hello all,
Title says it. It’s been years since tinkering with a WordPress page, but for different reasons. I used to build web pages for a small company that gave big opportunity to me today on WordPress templates. Now, this is just to get my words out (a reminder to myself to not overthink it).
I’m a person who’s mind wonders to strange places. Its favorite stops includes having their feet in both traditional and alternative fantasy elements. It likes to dream of worlds with elves and dwarves, but also wonder if they lived in a history of backroads in farms of North Carolina. It loves the serenity of silence in the woods and the smashing of punk rock guitars and nosebleeds. It also likes to peak into dark corners, where it may find something truly beautiful and equally terrifying.
A decade ago, my mind was truly lost. Whether it was in a Matrix-style sleep or just needing a checkup from the doctor, who knows. But there was something really missing there that needed something filled. I didn’t take good care of it then.
The road to get to here was when someone gave me a swift kick in the creative ass: my wife now, Bridgit. I’ve known her for a while in college, fell off a wagon of self discovery, and then saw her name in a comic convention pamphlet. But that’s a whole other story.
In 2019, I went to DragonCon and met the great Brandon Sanderson. I told him, frankly, that like many others his stories awakened something in me and brought over my tiny idea notepad to be blessed by him. I get tongue-tied easily and awkwardly stopped my sentence there, so it surprised me when he asked “For what? On reading or writing?”
I felt a little silly when I responded, “Uh, both.” Which is true from my sleepy brain as I was just trying my hand in writing but working on my reading muscle.
He laughed and asked “And how’s that going?” I answered that it could be better, it was (still is) a trial and error process for me. He signed it and asked me if I knew what BIC HOK was. I didn’t comprehend and shook my head, so he said it but it left me almost immediately since I my brain became overwhelmed that this conversation has carried on this far. He jotted that down and handed it back to me and said “It’s the one true rule to writing. That’s where you start.” I thanked him for his time for the advice.
I was starting to kick myself again that I couldn’t catch what he was saying until it dawned on me.
“Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard.”
Today is my birthday, and I dedicated to myself that I would write. This page, and hopefully more posts to come, is meant to be an accountability partner to my writing. I kick myself over and over again on not doing my due diligence to keep at plugging away on my stories.