My Literary Future

Today I did something that you'd get a slap in the face and a "AHAHAHA! BULLSHIT!" for if you ever told my parents about it.

I finished a book.

I bet you thought I was going to say something like illicit like "I smoked close to my bodyweight in marijuana" or "I drank enough to get an elephant buzzed". That might get the same response, but alas, my life is not that interesting.

I'll concede that it was actually an audiobook, but seeing as it was the same story being told I don't see all that much of a difference. Besides, I work a job that sees me spending 3+ hours on my own, undisturbed. Since I can't usually find the time or the drive to sit down and read, I saw this time as a perfect opportunity to "take in", in lieu of another acceptable term, American Gods by my new favorite author Neil Gaiman.

It inspired me.

It's a book about the gods of old, like Odin and Anansi and all the rest, fighting against the new gods, like Technology and Media. It's not really that simple, of course, but the way Gaiman describes mundane things and makes them bearable and in some cases downright entertaining sent me on a little writing tear.

I decided... or rather Inigo Rane decided... to pick up a little story I started writing last year. It never left the introduction, as just about every one of my stories don't, but after reading American Gods I started getting new ideas and new ways to portray them.

But 500 words into it, I stopped and thought. I really, really want to make a career out of writing. It is probably the one thing that I do exceptionally well and, quite honestly, it's the only thing outside of working a $15/hour job for the rest of my life that I could conceivably make a career out of.

So I decided to give myself a challenge. By the time I go to Missouri in the fall, I will finish this story that I started in the wake of American Gods. I'm going to try make it at least 75,000 words, though considering how much I've written compared to how far along the story is it'll probably crest 100,000 by the end. In addition, as hard as I'm going to try to make it fantasmigorical on ten different levels, I don't really care how good the final product is. If I finish it, and it's at the very least readable, I'll be satisfied and continue on my journey to be a bestselling author.

I know a few people might not have liked her for various reasons, but something the Professor from my college English class will always stick with me: "You're a great writer. You're going to be a writer someday if you want to be."

Considering she said that after reading one of the essays I wrote literally seven hours earlier, I think I'm in pretty good shape.