Last month I went to a virtual 5-day writing conference called Rebirth Your Writing, led by Brevity Magazine editors Allison Williams and Dinty W. Moore. It was the inspiring kick in the butt I needed to buckle down and get said butt into the chair and write. But not to write here on this old blog. I mean seriously write like a professional writer. No distractions. No excuses. That's the first thing that happened.
Then last weekend, my little brother died in Alaska, 4000 miles away. He had been getting sicker and sicker this year, after decades of being sick and in denial. He finally succumbed to alcoholism at age 59. He followed my mom in death by only two years.
We're also in a serious pandemic and some people think we're headed toward a civil war, so none of us know what will happen to us in the near future. Life is precious and seems increasingly precarious.
So instead of writing here, much as I love writing here, I'm going to do NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), which means I've made a commitment to write 50,000 words in November. Not 50,000 words of blog posts, but 50,000 words of what will become my book. I do love writing these blog posts, but I'm not a blogger who gets lots of comments and I don't write posts that many people tend to share, so this is a hobby at best. I need to focus on making writing -- not just teaching writing -- my profession. I need to stop giving it away here, in other words.
Some of you are as much to blame as the Rebirthing conference, you know. You've been telling me I should write a book for years now. Decades even. And now I'm making a commitment to doing it. (So promise me you'll buy the fucking book when it comes out, OK?)
It seems kind of crazy, given I'm barely keeping my head above the raging waters of 2020, to make a commitment that's even bigger than publishing a blog post every day. If I don't do it now though, I don't know when I will do it. Life is short -- sometimes shorter than you think. I need to prioritize this dream of mine to write and publish a book that I've had since I could pick up a pencil in my chubby little hand.
I'll pop in here when I need to get a rant off my chest, but it's best if you don't see much of me this month, here or on Facebook. Wish me luck though. I need a lot of that these days.
