January. A new year.
I have reconsidered announcing this website in 2023. I started it with the intention to not use it for a while, after all.
Last April, before I bought the website hosting services or the domain name, while I was still researching how to start one and was quite frustrated by the whole endeavor, I wrote the following in my journal:
“I could not remember what I would do with a website yesterday. Let me restate it here: nothing. I would own the website, and let it build the credibility of age. I would post to a blog or something once a month. If I happened to collect an e-mail address, I would tell them when I posted an update. I would learn how to use the site, the e-mail list, etc. I would have that internal sense of accountability. I would mostly do nothing.”
When I decided to write here each month, I planned to update you on the state of my novels and website (this being a website for a novelist, you see). What about when I have little progress to report? “Nothing new here, check back next month”? That is part of the accountability; I want to have done something new so I can include it here.
So far, I have posted here once a month. I have begun research about collecting e-mail addresses. The sense of accountability does help me. As of now, there is nothing to see, only this backlog of letters claiming that one day I will be a writer. While I know I will, I have no evidence to provide you yet. I need to have a novel before I divert too much effort into getting someone to read it.
To that end, I am still working on editing my science fiction draft. A recent holdup was a gap in the draft where, although I knew what happened, I had to create words – dialogue, details, minor continuity complications that come up – instead of merely editing them. Then I hit a complicated part of my plot. Throughout this situation there are between three and five groups of interest at any giving time, all doing different things and interacting with some of the others. I have had trouble keeping track of who knows what at what time, and am still experimenting with how to present this simultaneous action to the reader. Excuses, excuses. I am slow. This is still fun.
So! The major holidays are over; back to work in earnest. Despite delays, the second draft is actually well on its way to its next stage of existence. This website I would prefer to be a higher quality before I publicly announce it. I also have some projects to attend to outside this seedling career. Good progress; now to make more. I will keep working at it all.
Happy New Year!