For the April IWSG I'm talking about that first and second novel and young me versus old me.

Hello again. It's been a hot minute since I've posted anything on this blog. For the curious, my roommates have now moved in, and I'm now through my adjustment period I think. Leading up to the move in I tried to make things smooth. I changed out the shower head for them in their bathroom with a luxury shower head made by Pulse. I also made room in all of the cabinets and in the garage and freed up a bunch of storage space. I also changed my Xfinity plan to an unlimited data plan, as these roommates are much younger and prefer online interactions to other kinds of interactions. This means that they are online a lot (usually playing games). So, I think they will be comfortable. It's actually fun having roommates that share the same interests. Overall, I'm happy with the situation. Now it's time to open the blog up again, and the best place to start with doing that is the monthly Insecure Writer's Support Group post. If you somehow have not heard of this monthly blogging event, you can go HERE for all of the details. But, I think I summarize them pretty well below.

What is the Purpose of the IWSG?: It's to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds.

When do y'all post?: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group Day. So, that's when you'd post your thoughts on your own blog. You can talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. It's a safe place to discuss your struggles and triumphs. You can also offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. You should also visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer. A good rule of thumb is to aim for a dozen new people each time and then return comments. This group is all about connecting. The IWSG wants to remind you to be sure to link to their web page (as I did above) and to display the badge in your post. And please be sure your avatar links back to your blog. Otherwise, when you leave a comment, people can't find you to comment back.

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

The IWSG Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and the hashtag they use is #IWSG.

The awesome co-hosts for the April 5 posting of the IWSG are Jemima Pett, Nancy Gideon, and Natalie Aguirre!

Now, every month, the IWSG announces a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt someone to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. If you go this route, then you should include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.

But always remember that the question is optional.

And I think that's it. So now I'm going to answer the question.

April 5 question - Do you remember writing your first book? What were your thoughts about a career path on writing? Where are you now and how is it working out for you? If you're at the start of the journey, what are your goals?

I unfortunately lost my first and second book. I remember writing it during my last year of high school. I did it on a typewriter, and I lost that copy of that story a long time ago. Then I wrote a sequel to it during my first year of college. I was such a nerd, investing tons of time in writing a story that I didn't even have the first clue on how to publish it. I remember when it got to around 400 pages, I was growing alarmed that I'd barely gotten to the midpoint of my story. I was also impressed that I'd written 400 pages. However, the problem took care of itself as the floppy disk I was storing it on got badly damaged, and I had no backup. This turned out to be a good thing, because the book was probably terrible, and this incident made me rethink my characters and why I wanted to be a writer in the first place. It also made me acutely aware of the dangers of storing things on digital media. It was not the only time I'd run into this problem.

I tried to outsmart the data and always future proof it. This took the form of buying a CD-burner and burning things to CD. Haha! I thought. There is no way that CD's will ever be obsolete! You can store tons of stuff on them. And here in 2023 I have about fifty CD's that are all scratched up and I have no way to read any of them anymore that I'm forced to admit...yeah putting things on CD was stupid. But not DVD-R's! That wasn't stupid... but yeah it was. Those are obsolete now too. Sigh. Don't even get me started on music. I've had MP'3s and then iTunes and now I just pay Spotify. On and on it goes. I've probably paid for the same song a dozen times over several times in my life.

I even have a small 4GB thumb drive that has stuff on it, and I wonder when the time will come when I can't plug that thing in to retrieve the things I wanted to hold onto. For the most part, I just store everything in the cloud now. Which will work until the cloud somehow goes down.

So, what were my thoughts about a career path on writing? Well, I arrogantly assumed that I was special, and one of the only people I knew who could write a novel. This is so...so wrong that it is laughable. Crapping out 1000 pages is extremely easy...a lot easier than I ever would have thought. And a lot of people are capable of doing just that. But anyway, this arrogance led me to believe that should I ever want to be published, that it wouldn't be too difficult. And then I finally finished a project and suddenly discovered that it actually is, and that you need to know all of these things about how the business of publishing works and how to network with people and how to market yourself and how what you write needs to be tailored to an audience that has money to pay for your product. Suddenly, my eyes were open. And as far as now goes, I think that the young me would be very disappointed with the old me. But the old me is quite happy with the old me, as I write things that I want to read, and I have outlets to publish those things through self-publishing that provide me with just enough reward to be satisfied. Young me was way too concerned with his own self-importance and seeking validation and approval from others. Old me just doesn't want to be in pain in the morning and to fill my free time with entertainments and enjoying what life has to offer.

There's also been some strange validations that have come my way via Dungeons & Dragons, which was my childhood hobby. So, in recent years, D&D has soared in popularity and there are just tons of people who are expressing interest in it or who are playing it. And here I am, someone who has DM'd games for almost 40 years, and suddenly I have all of these new people to teach and who seek out my advice (and who have a strange reverence for people like me who have been doing this for decades--I'm like the guru on a mountaintop). It's been a tremendous amount of fun, and people really like the games I've been running for them. So much so that I basically have a waiting list now. So, in one way or another, I became the storyteller I always wanted to be. It just didn't turn out anything like I envisioned it doing when I was in my early 20's.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and reading all of my words. I'm going to write about the D&D movie for Friday.