(vol 1) PROLOGUE - "You gotta have a plan"

Recently I arrived at the truth.

The only person stopping me from being more serious and more committed to my writing is me.

Sure I could use the excuse of being stuck in a family members house, closed in among towers of boxes that contain my worldly possessions, waiting for my nearly decorated new home to be ready.

I could say its because I don't have that writing space that I used to. I never really utilised that desk and I only miss it now because it's gone.

Or I could blame my one year old son for taking up any writing time that I do manage to scrounge.

And when those excuses are all used up there's always the good old XBOX calling me for "just one more minute" of whatever game I'm in the mood for that night.

Well this blog is the opening salvo in a regular series of slaps to the face; the wake up call that the trapped writer inside of me has been screaming for. So what's my aim? I want to stop writing in the dark with no feedback and no links to the world I so desperately want to be a part of. 

Before setting this blog up I researched other writer's blogs and soaked up as much as I could. I know that advice I read is just that; advice. It's guidelines not rules. But its advice written by people who have been where I am now and maybe, if I pick the stuff that feels right and just keep in mind the stuff that doesn't, I might be able to make something of myself that's more than just "a guy who looks after computer systems, has a decent yet worthless Gamerscore and always dreams of being a writer without really pushing himself".

Sure this could fail and I may never complete the journey from my A to my Z. If that is how it pans out then I only have myself to blame. Of course the silver lining could be that people like you read this and it puts you back on track on your own journeys.

So to begin with, this blog will open with me finding the time to write and the goals I set myself. I'll bring together the scrappy, half finished short stories. I'll dust off and begin operating on the first drafts of my four NaNoWriMo novels, the ones I keep putting off because the work they need doing scares me a little.

As well as that I will comment on and link to things that I'm using to help myself like other sites and books. And if it works, maybe some way down the line I'll be able to comment on the process of getting published.

But let's not get ahead of myself; I need to walk before I can run. 

See you in seven.