A Welcome Speech and Some Free Advice
A piece of advice to young writers out there.
Don't. Apologize. For. Your. Writing.
I only say this because I almost caught myself doing it when I went to type this blog post. "I'm not very good at this," or "You'll have to forgive me if I sound like I don't know what I'm talking about." I'm half way terrified of putting this out on the web because it's not perfect yet and I'm still figuring things out and a million other excuses. But I will say again to you aspiring writers out there, do not EVER apologize for not being perfect.
Because you can't be perfect and you never will be perfect, so it's an unreasonable expectation to have of yourself. If somebody reads your work and says, "Well, you're no Stephen King or J. K. Rowling," what they are failing to realize is that all of those writers that they can compare you to are writers who have been practicing their craft for several years. It would be like comparing a junior varsity bench warmer to a Superbowl champion. "Well, that college sophomore is no Russell Wilson." I guarantee, if you make that parallel, a sports person will tell you that it takes a lot of hard work and training to be a Superbowl champion and you can't just walk in off the street and win a trophy.
Well, guess what. Being a writer takes hard work and training. Who would have thought. And practice, practice, practice.
So, here is my first ever blog post. It's not as perfect as I'd like it to be. It's not checking off every box on my OCD list of what a perfect first blog post should be. But I'm not going to throw a game winning touch down without practice. And you should never be embarrassed or feel you should apologize about needing to practice. Practice makes perfect.
That being said. Welcome to my blog. I hope you like it here. Send me a message if you'd like or leave a comment. We can commiserate about first blog posts. Were you scared to post your first one?
Until next time, friendly whippoorwills.