28 Months of Blogging

Yep, it's been 28 months; my how time flies when you're having fun. It's also amazing to look back and see how this blog has evolved over the months. When I first started, I was very nearly scared. I had no idea what to do with a blog. In fact, I kind of stumbled on getting one because of troubles I had commenting on other's blogs. I still don't really know why I couldn't comment then; it's been a long time since I've had such trouble.

Way back at the beginning, the only thing I could think of to share was various scenes from the different stories I've written, but I knew there would be only so many of those I could post without managing to post the entire story, and if I did that, what would be the point of publishing them. All you'd have to do is put the pieces together and figure out the order - haha - talk about putting a puzzle together.

But then I started developing an opinion on various tricks of the trade of writing. I have gone to great lengths to read and pay attention to those I consider in the know, but we all know that eventually it all must find its own nook under our skin and behind our eyes. Now, of late, some of that has started leaking out and onto these posts. I'll never claim to be right. Right is something we all have to decide for ourselves. Just like all the advice we get from beta readers, editors and even publishers, the final decision needs to be our own. The story is, after all, our story.

I've heard several tales about some changes requested by publishers. The worse, I think, was to totally change one of the characters to make the book more marketable. That issue was a long time ago and it happened to someone else, but the change was drastic. A character, like a person, makes decisions and even acts in a certain way largely based on who the character is. If you change who he or she is, they are going to act differently and make different decisions. For instance, if you change a character from a man to a woman (or the other way around), can you imagine what that would do to the thread of a story? Or lets look at another drastic change. Lets change a character from white to black (or the other way around here too). Not to play any kind of race card here, but in most cases, especially in fiction where drama is highlighted, a person of a different race, any race, will make different decisions taking the thread of a story in a totally different direction.

But I digress

As I said, I have an opinion about writing now, though I'm still learning all the little tricks. Recognizing an issue is now fairly easy and in most cases it stands out above the content of the story itself, making it rather hard for me anymore to read books.

Currently I'm reading a delightful story, but there are way too many perfect characters. I am liking it though. I haven't read anything like it before and it does have my favorite element in it - magic.

Ach - I digress again - or did I. Such is the evolution of my blog. It has taken on being my place to post my opinion on some subject or other to do with writing. From time to time, you'll still see a sample from one or another of my stories, and if there's anything you'd like to see in particular, let me know. I do love hearing from my readers.

I hope you all find my blog interesting, and like always, if you have a question or suggestion, I'd love to hear it.