What it takes…
I love to write.
There aren’t many other activities I enjoy as much as I love to write. I’ve always loved it. I remember the first story I wrote was about my friends the bunnies living in the field behind my house. I was 4-5 (I’ll have to check with my older brother who has a memory like a steel sieve), when I had my bunny friends, and a Sophomore in High School (go Hawks!) when I wrote it.
Based on true events. Not the bunnies… I had a great hallucinatory imagination when I was little. I could see them… and talk to them… and they talked to me.
I digress.
It takes commitment and some sacrifice to be a writer. I write 6 days a week. Sometimes 7. And when I sit down to exercise my fingers on my keyboard I’m invested for multiple hours an evening. Sometimes into early morning. Several 1-2 a.m. late night sessions. Like right now. It’s 10p.m. and I’m still at it. I take a break at dinnertime and then for The Little’s bedtime (most nights, tbh) then I get back at it. I have a VERY supportive spouse who wants to see me succeed as a writer and who understands the time commitment required. If you don’t have that—it’s an uphill battle. I get it. If staying up late brings contention, try getting up early to spend time writing—even if it’s 15 minutes a day. Crank something out every day.
A Writer’s Journey
My first blog post. How exciting.
Writing about writing is surreal. There’s a famous Norman Rockwell painting where he’s seated, brush in hand, looking in a mirror, painting himself.
It’s a painting about painting.
This is the first book in years I’ve seriously and consistently worked on for tens of thousands of words. Looking back 8 weeks it seemed such a daunting task—writing an 80,000 word book! Do you have any idea how long that is? Very. Seriously, it’s a lot of written language. And I only started in January. There’s something remarkable about crafting a novel out of imagination and thin air. It’s a pretty cool process.
I’ll have more to say tomorrow. I plan to write my blogs over several days during the week then publish them on Friday each week. Weekly is about all I have bandwidth for at this point.
It works.
````````````````````````````````````````````````````
I now have my website and social media up and running. You can find me on Instagram at loganhbrand.author. I’ll post my FB page soon. :)
I still work full-time and enjoy what I do for a living. Honestly, I love writing more and I’d love to earn sufficient to care for my family on the royalties of my books (when I have books that is). The likelihood of that is like hitting a million dollar jackpot in Vegas. I believe I can do it over the next several years. The writing part, not the jackpot.
I have a lot to say and dammit… I’m going to say it.
There.
I’ve been averaging 416 words a day. At this rate it’ll be July before I finish. I intend to be done in June. Have to kick up my average by another 150 words. Tough numbers to hit when you work full-time and have a family with a little. Only 18 summers.
Easy peasy.