Seven novels.

That’s the plan. A prequel, a trilogy, and another trilogy after that. If I continue on with my current run rate, I’m looking at anywhere between seven hundred thousand to a million words.

A million words.

Nothing makes a person freak out more than adding it all together, instead of breaking it down into manageable chunks. Really, it’s just two series. Present TJ spends a lot of time looking over the lengthy timeline in Scrivener, while poor Future TJ is stuck doing a lot of the writing. Thank the gods for Past TJ. At least that guy got something done!

On the topic of Future TJ, I find myself trying my best to figure out what to do with my stories as discussed many a time here. In light of this, I’ve been listening to some interesting writing Podcasts. I recently listened to one that told me to stop wasting words on my blog.

Every second you’re not writing is a wasted opportunity.

This is very true. This is actually the whole reason I started a blog in the first place, as when writer’s block struck I could come here to get away from my story and do something, anything, to get past that hump. NaNoWriMo was a huge help as I networked with a ton of writers who were struggling just the same as me but now there are still tons in the same boat as me… but there doesn’t seem to be a National Publishing Month (or is there?).

It was brought up in the Podcast that these blogs stick around like a bad smell and if your writing was terrible, then it would be around forever to haunt your dreams. I totally understand where they’re coming from. Hell, I look back at my hairstyles in high school and wonder just what I was thinking. I can only assume this blog will be the same.

In defense of this poor blog, AKA My Diary, I one day hope that other aspiring writers will come here (once I’m rich and famous, HA) and see how insecure and terrible I was at writing. I want them to see the struggle. I want them to see the wins. Most of all, I want them to see themselves as what was, what is and what can be. Bumbling around, writing rubbish and finally winning NaNoWriMo are all a part of the journey and for me, this whole blog is also a part of that.

I might be asking the wrong crowd, but do you lovely folks think there is merit to not having a digital paper trail? Or do you think like me in the sense that this is as much a part of your writing portfolio as the stories themselves?

No matter what, I hope poor Future TJ doesn’t look back on this blog and groan… much like I did when I saw my hair back in my teens. Here’s one for a late TBT!