While reaching out to some fellow bloggers, I had a realisation. Many of the people I follow are putting their stories into competitions and competing for publication and prize money and here I sit, not much closer to being published than the same time last month. Despite this blog getting a solid three hits a day (I realise that’s low) I don’t generally share my writing with people unless I know them.
This is one of the main reasons I actually cherish my blog and the people (yes, you!) who follow along in my journey. Every comment (good or even constructive) builds that confidence up. As I mentioned in a previous post, there is only one story I shared for actual critique and that was ‘Circle of Vengeance’. I had that story judged both harshly and constructively in the upwards of twenty times before I uploaded it to various places such as Amazon, iBookstore and Lulu. The worst part about those is that despite being available for the masses, and free, virtually no one downloaded them. I am most likely not playing my cards right, but at the same time I need more reinforcement!
As of today, I uploaded the ever wonderful Circle of Vengeance to Wattpad (available online or through Android or iOS app stores) in the hopes people will like the story and share it with friends. I’ll be honest, as active as I seem to be on social media, I’m still not sure how to harness its evil power for good (or at least for me). At the end of the day I blog because I like it (diaries being so outdated) and it’s exciting to interact with readers. Especially when they’re your own!
The hardest part with sharing my stories (despite my enthusiasm) is being so proud of how far my writing has come and not seeing the same excitement with the person I’m sharing it with. Or when you’re talking about your story and then the other person changes the topic. These aren’t just stories, I’m actually sharing a deep, personal side of me which everyone may know about, but few actually get to see. These moments are soul crushing and make me second guess myself and my writing.
There are writing groups near where I live, however I work to pay the bills (as the writing can’t while I’m holding out) and I actually hate annual memberships. I’d like to attend a free session to see if it is what I’d like to be a part of before committing to such a thing. Even gyms have trial runs. All I know, is I will keep on tapping away at this keyboard despite my lack of confidence as I have stories to tell. Let me know if you give the story a read, it clocks in just under ten thousand words and is my attempt at writing an action based story of revenge!
Also thanks to Yolanda, John and Alex for their continued support and be sure to pay them a visit to wish them luck in their own writing endeavours! Also thank you to anyone who has actually liked my blog posts, it might not be much for you, but it means a lot to me!