Getting things started

Bravely Sauntering Forward into the Internet

So, it appears the very first thing that struck me after making this was writers block. Thus, I'm going to abuse that as a sort of introduction -- it's not unwarranted, a form of it plays a large part in the creation of this little blog.

You see, I've long since contemplated making some form of blog purely for the joy of rambling. You may have noticed that word up there on the title, rest assure, you will see it quite a few more times. I do that after all; ramble. Usually to anyone unfortunate enough to be in the same room as me when thoughts bounce into my head, occasionally to the dog if that's not the case. I noticed a while back I was essentially blogging without the typing component, vlogging without bothering to put up a camera first. So the idea to simply make the bridge and sit down to make these ramblings more coherent and archived isn't an earth shattering one - indeed, to most of you fine folks on this site it's probably the most natural one.

That's where we get back to writers block.

A large chunk of what I consider writers block isn't merely the inability to get the ball rolling, all of your ideas bundled up behind the looming cliff face of 'what do I say first?', but also the terrible fear of judgement once it's been said. After all, my dog isn't a particularly harsh critic and even if I'm spewing out the most atrocious bile it tends to be content to sit and listen with only the token scratch behind the ears as payment. Furthermore it certainly isn't permanent. Gods, did that concept ever give me pause. Words spoken into the air can be quickly forgotten and hold no weight in the face of the future. Once those words are committed to something that persists and indeed can be viewed and - god forbid - remembered by other people?! Well, it demands a level of quality that I simply didn't have any faith in myself to maintain.

I'll try and go easy on the ass kissing here, but many other individuals maintain blogs with a startling level of devotion and detail that can be truly scary to a person starting out. Sites like the Escapist have turned the process of putting your thoughts out into the world into a thing of business even. Now, I have no illusions (I'm willing to share) of myself ever achieving work by merely telling the world what's going through my head, but just the existence of people who can compounds that demand of quality mentioned above. It's as if the world has shown us what it can produce and is asking for some kind of equal level of work in repayment.

Honestly, my only defense in the face of such is to try my very best to not give a damn. Those of you who have struggled through these few paragraphs should realise by now I have no training in proper structuring. It's a flaw I'm aware of. Some people out there can pull off nothing more than stream of consciousness and make it damn entertaining at the same time. I am not one of those individuals. I originally had ideas for reviews, thoughts, philosophy, not politics (never politics, that tends to be too explosive for me) that I wanted to bring into the light and see what the world thought of me. I still intend to try those things, but I must note first that it'll be a matter of learning. I hope to write for the rest of my life even if it's not in the format of novel or anything that will ever be profitable. To give that some merit I'm going to use this blog to train myself into being a better writer.

Anyone who is brave enough to keep an eye on me as I progress I whole heartily welcome. Though I wont be amazed if that group consists of, now and forever more, largely my dog.