No More Excuses

I should have started a blog long ago. I’ve made a million excuses..

“I don’t have the time.”

“I don’t even know what I would write about.”

“Who’s gonna read it, anyway?”

Today, I decided to stop making excuses.

I can make the time.

I’ll write about whatever I want until I develop my niche’.

Who cares if anyone reads it. At least I’ll be writing SOMETHING.

So, here I am, a few hours after making that decision, writing away..

I’ve enjoyed reading for ages. I used to spend hours lost in a book, so absorbed in the world that the words created, that I’d often forego food and sleep because I just couldn’t put it down. Through my love for reading, I gained tremendous respect for the power of the written word, and the writers who created it.

My favorite books growing up were fantasy books. I loved and respected how the authors could create, not only a story, but an entirely new world to base that story in. I give full credit to the Harry Potter series for creating my love for reading.. I got to grow up alongside the main character. I have no shame in admitting that I waited for my letter from Hogwarts. As an adult, I still harbor a love for fantasy books, but I’ve learned to expand my horizons.

I tried writing some stories when I was a teenager, and I really enjoyed it, but I just didn’t have that natural creative spark, and I found myself constantly frustrated of that fact. I’m an analytical thinker; very left-brained, and, with time, I realized that I was a fairly decent writer, but my real niche’ was in editing the hell out of any piece of writing you put in front of me. When writing, I would get a paragraph or two into a story, then spend 15 minutes going through and making sure each and every sentence sounded perfect. I couldn’t help myself. This never turned out to be a good idea because by the time I tried to get back to writing the story, any flow I had was long gone. I just couldn’t move on until I was satisfied.

When I got to college, I still wanted to get into writing, any kind of writing, but I also wanted to be sure I got into a field that had decent job potential. After a couple years of slowly completing some of my core classes, while I figured out what I wanted to do, it hit me. Journalism.

Admittedly, when I first got into my journalism classes, I was in it strictly for the writing, not the journalistic aspect. Looking back, that was pretty naive since journalism involves a lot more aspects than just writing. I learned that lesson quickly after writing a few articles of my own. As time went on, and I took more classes, I got more and more excited about journalism as a whole. My primary excitement stemmed from the passion of some of my professors about how journalism can help to expose wrongdoings, and create good changes in our world. Being able to make a difference through my writing was a very appealing prospect to me.

Now, as I get further along in my college career, I’ve begun to lean more towards wanting to get into an editing position of some sort. Not just because I’m good at it, but because I really enjoy it too. That being said, I still love writing. And I absolutely love the idea of being a writer. The respect and love I gained for writers at a young age has never dissipated, and it still drives me today. Admittedly, the writing process can be hard, but my love for the written word continues inspiring me to push forward.

There’s a great quote by writer/poet Dorothy Parker that says, “I hate writing; I love having written.” Now, I don’t hate writing, but the process can be extremely frustrating. Yet, when I see the finished project of my writing, no matter the content, I love it. I love having written. I love to see the story, or impression, my words can create, and that, well.. that makes it all worth it.

Several different people have given me the same advice when it comes to writing, especially when I talk about not knowing where to start…

“Just write.”

Just write.

Something.

Anything.

It’s high time I took that advice.

I may not be writing the short stories, or novels, that I long to create one day, but the more I write, the better I’ll become, and the happier I’ll be.. just having written.