Writing Goals

As I start this writing challenge I have to ask myself what I hope to accomplish with this. The last thing I want to do is spend another hour in the day doing something useless. I already feel like I don’t have enough hours in the day so I’d hate to make it feel even shorter.

Oh time, where do you go? And why do you go so fast? Or why do you go so slow? Why are you never as long as I want you to be?

Anyway, the goals I have with my writing are honestly to have another tool in my belt that I’m confident enough in to share. Something I can share when someone might say, “Oh, Andy. I didn’t know you wrote.” 

Yeah. Aren’t we all writers, though? Maybe? I don’t know. 

So yeah, I want to build my writing skills, have something to be proud of and share, and just have another outlet where I can have my voice out there among the billions of others. 

It’s funny, I take a lot of pictures and I’m part of other creative projects but I since I’m not making my living solely off photography I feel like a bit of a phony calling myself a photographer. Yes I perhaps have the skills of a photographer but do I have the skills of a photographer in terms of business? Well, so far I don’t. And honestly I’m not sure if I ever will. I’ve read the books and I’ve tried some workshops but at the end of it all I’m still at a loss half the time. 

This is why I think writing is different for me. Do I want to be a professional writer or do I just want to write? Who knows.

Am I romanticizing he idea of being a successful writer? Probably.

Do I want to move my family to Paris and write novels from the upstairs attic of our apartment? Yup. I do. What sound so bad about that? I think that would be a fantastic life for all involved.

Will I publish a book some day? Maybe. Only time will tell but let’s face it, self-publishing is an option, and if I am the only gate-keeper to this question, well, I’d consider that a good thing.

So yeah, I’ve written the English word since a very young age, and I’m pretty sure I’ve done it for over 10,000 hours in my life, but I have a lot to learn. I don’t consider myself an expert in the English language. Not in the slightest. Grammatically speaking, I’m a mess. 

“Does it sound right?” 

“Sounds right to me.”

“Okay. Hit publish.”

But back to goals. Why am I even doing this? Well like I said above, I’ve romanticized the idea of being a writer. A novelist. An author. And why shouldn’t I romanticize it? I can dream can’t I? When I was younger I could be anything I wanted. I’m older now and certain things have passed me by. No more professional baseball. No more astronaut. But being a writer... well that’s still possible. That’s something I can still achieve.