Inspired or Insipid: You be the Judge.

So, I have a handful of various issues with blogging. Mostly, I refuse to believe that anything I say is interesting enough that someone will want to take the time to read it. As thrilling as my day to day is (and believe me, it is damn near impossible to keep up with me. I sometimes drink coffee in THREE different coffee-serving-establishments. In one day.), the practice of sharing it with the world seems largely to be an exercise in vanity. I prefer to be vain in private, as it draws less attention and I can always deny it later, given that I am the only witness and I have absolutely no problem lying to myself about myself. Also, I tend to ramble, which does not really make for good reading.

Having said all that, I woke up this morning to begin my normal routine. I slid the unlock slide on my iPhone (still one of the most satisfying tactile experiences of my life. I know, get a girlfriend...) and went though the usual checklist. Email: check. Myspace: check. Twitter: check. And there, on my Twitteriffic feed, I read the series of posts in which Neil Gaiman discovered he had won the Newbery Award this morning (they began with "who is trying to call me at 5:45 am, and WHY?", and ended with "FUCK!!! I WON THE FUCKING NEWBERY THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME!!!"). I was thrilled for him. I know, I kind of idolize this guy, but for good reason.

I have been a huge fan of his for years. I think he is one of the most important writers of our generation, and he has inspired me to get back into shape (as it were) and try writing myself. He has won every major comics award there is, a shelf load of sci-fi awards (Hugo, Nebula, Locus, etc...), blogging awards (yeah, they have them), his movie Coraline is premiering in two weeks and is really a groundbreaking piece of film for the stop motion animation set, and now he has won the Newbery for a book that has been on the New York Times Bestseller list for 16 weeks and counting. What do you think that feels like? He has proven capable of writing award winning material in ANY given medium (Comics, Film, TV, Poetry, YA literature, Fiction, Non-Fiction, onandonandon...). He has made a living as a storyteller, regardless of the structure and form, he just tells stories. Well. Very, very well.

At any rate, I realized that I want that. That is why I loved acting. That is why I love movies, and books, and friends, and video games. Everything I enjoy in life I plug into through the story of the thing. I want to tell stories. However I can. So, I went to my little cafe across the street, I bought a cup of coffee and a burrito, and I decided that I needed to set up a regimen of writing. I have one short story nearly polished and one that is just being written. I have a children's poem that I am getting illustrated and I will be sending it and the first story out for publications this next month. I am writing an online comic strip that is going to be really brilliant and likely fall flat on its face, but I am still really excited about it (even though it has stunted a bit in the last couple months. But we are fixing that. ). And, I have decided, I am going to blog. Twice a week. About whatever. Because in order to be a writer, you have to write. And, I figure, if you want to be a writer of many various things, you should write a number of various ways.

So, if you don't have anything else to do, I'd like to invite you to take this little ride with me. I can't promise it will be interesting all the time, but I can guarantee that when it is, it will be worth it. And maybe you will get a sneak peak of new things as they are happening. Or maybe you can help out because you know someone who takes young writers under their wing and grooms them to be actual Writers, with big capital Ws. Or maybe you can just make fun of me for being 27 and just now trying to direct my life in some sort of proactive way. However you look at it, I will be here; and I would love the company.