Well well well. Here we go again. An amateur writer has sat down behind a keyboard and has a mind to inform others of his experiences as a newcomer to the field. Oh dear. This can only end well.
But before you run away in disgust or assume the fetal position in an attempt to ignore me until I go away, perhaps you'll hear me out by reading my fairly brief and largely unexceptional story as to what exactly I'm doing here. I'll be upfront and honest here; this blog will largely entail rambling about my ongoing experience as a fledgling writer, so I certainly don't blame most folks for turning around and walking the other way. It's not for everyone, obviously, and is more niche than anything.
In truth, this isn't quite exactly how I envisioned beginning this blog when it was conceived in my head all of 3 hours ago while at the gym. Indeed, between constant internet connection issues, distractions, fatigue and general lack of sustenance, this is turning out to be much more rambling nonsense than anything constructive. The once-clear vision is now more of a somewhat murky and vague idea. For all I know, this post may well be deleted or heavily altered tomorrow once my wits have returned. But either way, let the record show I put something out there, regardless of quality. And no, I'm not exactly worried about quality control on this particular blog, which is what separates it from my other blogs.
So...time to explore the hows, whys and whats of my situation. I think it's safe to assume that just about anybody who is reading this blog around the time of this post is a friend or family member, so likely knows that yes, I did recently quit my regular job in order to pursue writing. There's plenty to be said on the matter, but in order to prevent this single post from growing to ridiculous proportions, I'll summarize it in saying that my job meant extremely little to me, was nothing more to me than a source of (modest) income, and that I am glad to be rid of it. I wouldn't pretend for a minute that I had an exceptionally difficult job, but suffice it to say that it was negatively affecting me, both physically and mentally, which ended up being a contributing factor in my choice to leave. The primary reason was to get the ball rolling on my urge to become a writer (and ultimately actually get paid for it), but there ended up being a laundry list of smaller reasons that ultimately pushed me to give my two weeks notice somewhat earlier than I had initially expected.
Perhaps what's more interesting is the reaction of others to my decision. It almost goes without saying that you expect mixed reactions to such a choice, and yes, that ended up being the case. However, to the credit of my friends, family and (now former) co-workers, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Granted, it's impossible to know exactly what others actually think about what they may view as a reckless leap of faith, leaving behind something reliable and sturdy like a 9:00-5:00 job (or in my case, 7:00-3:30) in favour of something that's anything but a sure thing. And sure, "Hey that sounds pretty cool" may well be polite code for "Just what the hell are you thinking man?", though I prefer to think that most people are sincere with their good regards. I recognize the risk involved, and I'm willing to take it. The fact of the matter is that after months and months of complaining about my job, threatening to friends and family of my impending quitting, and (justified) mockery about said hollow threats, I finally did put an end to it. And that, at least, I can be happy about.
I fear this post has now entered into the realm of absurdity in length. Also, my eyes are now doing that thing where you can't seem to control your depth perception and everything seems very very far away. I believe that may well be my queue to stop staring at a computer monitor, go to bed, and perhaps pick this up in the morning.
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