Past Due Debut

It isn't in my nature to engage in fruitless activity.
For a long time that's what I thought blogging amounted to be. People so insanely hungry for attention that they stopped keeping journals under their beds or hidden in boxes in the back of the closet, and now opened their hearts to strangers on the Great Internet so that everyone could empathize, comment, etc... To say I frowned on blogging is an understatement to say the least.

Since I was eleven years old I wanted to be an author, a novelist. Of course, when I was eleven that was projected to be my side-career between film projects; for I was also going to be famous movie star.

The summer I turned sixteen I realized that film-stardom was probably not in the cards for me.  I panicked. My whole life everyone told me I was going to be an actor! That is the danger of coming from a terribly supportive, small family/community - you believe you can do anything, but you have no idea how to begin preparing for such a life. I held the shattered pieces of my imagined celebrity future in my hands for about two hours, until I asked myself the question: "What have I always done? What makes me who I am?"

Aside from drawing/sketching, I understood that I always made up stories. Since before I even conceived of writing I would pace around my bedroom, the living room, or the backyard just thinking up stories and characters (though I had never considered them stories or characters - it was just always something I did)

So the thing that has brought me to this point (and will take me further) came into focus: writing, my career.

I've completed my first work. I've let it simmer as I work on a side-project, and even wrote an alternate version of the story so I could still play with those characters while the original version was allowed to sit and brew. I'm now in the process of editing with fresh eyes, and loving every moment of it.

It wasn't until I allowed myself to trust the writing community on Twitter that I discovered that blogging isn't exclusively faux-philosophers, attention-seekers, and lonely housewives. So many amazing writers blog, offering helpful advice, and allowing readers to glimpse into one of the strangest, and most exciting creative processes.  

So here I am, throwing my hat into the ring as it were. Not because I'm particularly important or special, but hopefully to give you a glimpse into a little something different, entertaining, or informative.

I have a tendency to ramble, chase rabbits, go on tangents, and over-explain; It was a tremendous accomplishment not to tell you all the stories associated with almost every sentence of this post. Slowly but surely I'm learning the value of being succinct.

Until we meet again...

-Colten