So I had a pretty long post up yesterday that I took down this morning, after reflection.
This blogging thing is really a great way to think things out, aloud as it were, and just get them off my chest.
But damn, people CAN read them (even if they aren't right now), and the things I said last night... if certain people had read them, it would have made my life pretty difficult.
To note, I didn't say anything bad about other people, quite the contrary in fact. But sometimes the only thing you can do is keep your mouth shut and deal with a situation as best you can.
And 'nuff said about that.
So one other thing I mentioned in that prior post was that I have always had a secret dream to be a published writer. I even made a brief go at it a few years back, submitting a short story to a bunch of genre magazines. Obviously all I got back were a bunch of rejection letters, but it was still progress of a sort.
And I will mention that the letters were well-deserved. The story was utter shite, and I cringe now when I look at it.
So yeah, after the rejections, I kinda let the whole thing drop and focused on a more practical career, which is what got me, eventually, in a massively roundabout way, to the great job I have today.
And now that that job has settled-in pretty nicely, I have some time. Recent events and the prompting of a great friend of mine (who pushes me to try new things and open myself up) has made me decide to try to plunge back into the writing thing a bit again.
So now I need to figure out what to write... and it's not so easy as one might think.
I have a few options:
1) The story that saved my life. There's a backstory there that I won't go into, but I promised myself awhile back that I would write this story, and I do want to do it sometime.
2) A story set in Ardenia. Ardenia is a fantasy-based world that I've been developing via story notes for, oh, probably 10 years now on and off. I have an incredible amount of background for it, but always seem to get side-tracked when I try to actually write a story set there.
3) Unnamed space universe. I've been toying with a new story setting in my head for a few months now (I've always done this, whether I'm actively writing or not). It's a sci-fi setting that starts with the conquest of earth by unknown aliens and the escape of a small but determined band of humans focused on reclaiming their homeworld.
Those are the three main ones I could do. Oh, I could also dip into one of several other settings, or a few one-offs I've toyed with (such as the Ring story I started writing with Patricia many years ago). Heck, I could even dust off ye olde crappy magazine submission and try to make it readable.
Hey, that's not a bad idea... it could be a good exercise for me, as editing is something I've never really done (or done well). Hrmmm...
Maybe that's what I'll do.
Heck, I'd ask my "readers" for input, but since you don't actually exist... well, I'll just have to think about it. But the re-write of the old story is actually starting to appeal to me.
We'll see.
Posted by Campbell at June 15, 2004 12:48 AM