Quiet Keystrokes and Midnight Ramblings

I find myself re-canalizing (again) just what it is that I want from the world of writing.  It seems like every time I turn around I have discovered that such-and-such venture is not as personally rewarding as I thought it would be, or that I've begun pigeonholing myself in projects that are making it difficult for me to move towards my dreams as a whole.  My desires to write are like a river - except instead of finding the smoothest path towards the ocean and letting gravity do the rest I seem to continue finding myself trying to flow uphill and over mountain ranges. I'm stubborn that way. My current thought on the subject of writing can be summed up by answering a couple of questions that have been floating around my brain the last few days: 1)What do you want to BE when you "grow up" as a writer? Just a year ago, I thought being published by a well-known company like Yahoo! would be enough to call myself a writer.  And in some sense, it has.  I can ho...

Well, we've rushed into 2011 with much fanfare and although many of the bloggers around me are busy writing about their New Years Resolutions (mine can be found floating around a random forum somewhere, I'm sure) I am going to skip that train and move on to something that I know I'll actually follow through on. Writing is a lonely business, no matter how you slice it.  Sure, you accumulate a slew of proof-readers, editors and readers with thoughtful comments and feedback along the way; but when you are actually engrossed in the act of writing - the work of it - it's all you, baby.  Writing is most often a silent and private affair comprised of overwhelming amounts of caffeine, staring blankly out the window and spinning slowly in an office chair staring at one's feet and wondering when inspiration will strike. ...And God forbid you actually get words down on paper!  Then you have to go through days (or months) of nail-biting anxiety while you wait to bear back o...