Do I Dare?

So this question all starts when I had someone close to me tell me this wondrous dream that sparked so much creativity into me that I felt like I was about to burst. It is a story that would be a post apocalyptic world where science looks to new ways to try to save the dying earth by unconventional methods, magic. At least to me this sounds like an amazing story and one that I could have a lot of fun pushing myself to write since it is unlike my normal story style. And because of this I have been really itching to start it. However then I fear that my current project I have been so diligently working on will get left in the dust and become yet another story that I have never finished. Which I will be honest; it is a pretty lengthy list. I don’t want to be one of those people that constantly start writing projects but then abandon them due to another story. I have wanted to actually complete the whole process, from start to finish again instead pushing stories aside for different things.

This is my dilemma of do I dare? I love the currently story I am working on. It has so much potential, so much greatness and real character development and I feel the first real strong piece I have written so far. Or at least that is what I believe, but the problem is so do most of the stories I write. I always tell myself oh I just writing my ideas out and I will come back to that original story I was working on but never seem to do. It isn’t that I really truly don’t mean to go back to them, because from the bottom of my heart I do. I have this more than one project in mind when I say that too. And maybe someday I will. However, I haven’t yet. And that is now the biggest problem I have.

So now bringing us back to the original question that I asked: Do I dare? Do I dare start another project? At least writing some scenes down as they pop into my head and work my very hardest to stay on target to my current project. And to be clear the current project I am working on is more than half way finished at this point. Or do I just have the idea in my little notebook I carry around with me where ever I go and hope to goodness sake that I don’t forget all the wonderful ideas that pop into my head and when I finish my current project begin diving into the story that awaits me?

I know the correct answer. I really do but it is one of those stages where I am afraid of not completing yet another thing that I am prepared to do something drastic. This is my problem and this is my question. Do I dare?

What Words Count?

What words really count when you are counting? I have been thinking a lot about this exactly question lately. I hear some people include their blog in their daily word count goals and others think that a blog is something extra and not to be counted in what you have “written” for the day. I personally find that it can go both ways. So what one is wrong and what one is right?
Until  today I will admit, I was leaning to the side that you shouldn’t count what you have written for your blog as part of your daily writing. It should be included in something completely different. It is like an additional project that really isn’t considered “writing” but rather a way to express yourself and something to get your name known. You have daily writing goals to help make your current project keeps running, to make sure that it continues and so you don’t write useless words down just to make the word count but rather to increase the story value. Your daily word goals should be to get your projects finished. To get them to the end goal of being finished and then some day hopefully published rather than adding other projects to your plate. Your goals should be specific and include only your current pending projects instead of including that of side projects like a blog, or journal. I see no fault in this logic but as of late, especially today, I have been leaning in the other direction.
I have been leaning towards the thought process that writing a blog is helping actually your writing and so it  should count towards your daily word count goal (as long as that goal is not for a specific project like write 250 words towards this project). And to be honest, I have written this exact same blog so many different times (honestly it feels like hundreds by now) but  pushing the blogs are not writing and never publishing them. Why? I honestly don’t know.  Maybe it was because part of me, the deeper part of me found that I was not being honest with myself. However then it suddenly clicked. This thought process that it really was helping your writing.  When you write a blog you are making yourself think. Your creative muse is hard at work trying to come up with something to write that will connect you more with your viewers, your readers. The people you want to convince to be your fan, to cheer for you along the way (and hopefully not just family members and close friends). Once they are your fan, it will help you in the long run. Once you have finally published a book (or have done so already,) it will help you to sell said book and make your fans tell everyone about your amazing new creation.  It is a great way to get your work public and your showing off to everyone what a great writer you are but not just that. It also shows your fans that you are a real person with tangibility. I honestly think that is what helps most famous authors today. They are starting to seem more like real people and so people want to hear more from them, to see more from them.

But it isn’t just about your fans. Blogging is a way to keep your writing mind keep working even when you have to have a  little break from the hard sticky spot in your current work in progress. It is a way to let your mind reboot in a sense while still making progress with your ultimate goal. Just keep writing. It is a way to take a step back and see your writing almost from an outside perspective or to see your life in a way that could help out your story, your own writings.

As writers, I believe our ultimate goal is to spark creativity into a person who is reading our work. Our art. The thing we have been slaving over for so long until our foreheads bled onto paper (says a fellow writer/twitter/blogger, Mike Whitacre – find more about him on his blog http://mikewhitacre.blogspot.com/) and those thoughts became reality. We have slaved over our work. What better way to get our work out there than some one on one personalized blogging to let our readers know exactly who we are. I think it is important to blog and more so than ever because of this reason but also because it gives your mind that much needed break from writing the same thing day in and day out. Your mind gets tired and sometimes it needs little vacations to as I said before, reboot.

One reason why I honestly think part of me didn’t blog as much (not like one blog post fixes it) is because I saw it as another task to do instead of it  completing the harmony from the book I am currently writing and the process from when it becomes finished. Instead of it taking away from writing other things such as my project it is allowing me to get into the frame of mind to continue to work on it. To refresh my mind from the long days and roadblocks I have been facing on the computer trying to continue my beloved story and making it just that, beloved again to me. I also think writing a blog should be to strengthen my skills as a writer and to put thought to paper instead of being as another chore to do. Any writing as long as you are purposefully trying to better yourself should count as reaching a writing goal. Or at least that is my thoughts on this issue.

So now, at the end of the day, I think writing part of your blog should be counted towards your daily writing goal of overall writing (but not like I said above towards a different project goal). But I would love to hear what you think. Am I thinking logically or just bat-shit crazy?

Have a wonderful day everyone. Until the next time. 🙂