In The Beginning

Hi!

Welcome to the Left Hand of Dorkness.

I'm starting this blog for two reasons. One, to keep an ongoing progress report of my efforts to become a published science-fiction/fantasy writer. Two, to keep myself motivated and honest. My goal is to write at least 500 words a day for 5 days of the week and then gradually increase the amount of words over time. At first I'm going to focus on short fiction in an effort to get publish and to build a name for myself. And my first project is going to be for Tesseracts 14, a collection of Canadian speculative fiction. More information is available here.

Oh, did I forget to mention I'm Canadian? Well I guess now you know, and as they say knowing is half the battle.

Oh, did I forget to mention I'm a bit of a geek/dork/nerd. Well now you know that too. And I'm damn proud of it. I love science-fiction. I love fantasy. I love books, and this blog is also about those as well. I've played Dungeons and Dragons and Warhammer 40K and just about every board game I could get my hands on. I've watched the entire run of Babylon 5 on DVD and cursed the Fox network when they canceled Firefly. I read webcomics and have Robert J. Sawyer's website bookmarked. As I said, I'm a geek.

Well, now that we have the opening formalities out of the way and you know a bit about me let's take a look at what I've accomplished so far. For the last month I've been gathering resources together to start writing. I've scoured bookstores for books on writing and picked up a few choice volumes to read. I obtained a copy of Orson Scott Card's book on writing science fiction and gone through it. I've upgraded my chair so that I won't kill my back. I've cleaned and reorganized my bookshelves so that I can turn my chair and pull any reference book I might be looking for. I've started buying magazines for interesting articles that could inspire a short story or novel. All the needed prep work has been done, so has my writing career taken off?

Well, no.

Writing isn't about all the non-writing things you do. It's about butt in seat time spent writing and revising. I could spend the next 10 years in courses, reading books, and talking about writing but it won't make a difference until I actually put pen to paper, or pixel to screen as the case may be. One can have a full toolbox but a house can only be built through time and hard work. And today was the start.

So far I've written 680 words for the Tesseracts project. That may seem like a small number but for me it's huge. I've gone from nothing to something, from a blank page to words on the screen and it feels good. It was hard work. I'm using mental muscles that have lain dormant for a very long time, but I did something. I've started on my dream of becoming a published author and I'm not going to let that go. I have until the end of November to submit a story for Tesseracts 14. My goal is to have the first draft ready by the end of September so that I can have friends and family read it and provide feedback. October will be spent in revision and further reading, and then in November I submit. No excuses, no dodging. I will have a story submitted in November, ready or not.

Well, that's about it for this week. Thank-you for taking the time to read this and I hope you come back next week to check on my progress. I'm going to try to post every Monday with an update on where I'm at on my current project and what other activities I've done to aid my literary career. Until then, may the farce be with you.