Doing

Starting a “pro blog” is weird. I kept a personal blog on Livejournal when that was what all the kids were doing, and I moved to Tumblr, even though I never really figured out what to do with Tumblr other than find all of the writing blogs and then reblog pictures and gifs of Captain America and Nightwing. But a blog tied to my public persona as a writer and professional still feels a bit beyond me. What will I say? How will people react? Who will actually care?*

It’s scary to put yourself out there no matter if you’re writing, dating, or opening a potato-peeling business. There’s always the opportunity for failure—or, potentially worse, for silence. So why do it? Why throw myself out there with the possibility that no one is listening and that I’ll still struggle with what to write?

. . . Hmm. You are suspiciously quiet on this topic.

For me, the only real failure is in not trying. Potential is a beautiful thing that can be protected by not acting. I’ll always have the potential to be a writer, even if I never write. I mean, I have the potential to be a trapeze artist or an astrophysicist, even though both seem fairly unlikely at this point. There is a possibility—somewhere—that I could be those things if only I tried. Potential isn’t real; it’s hypothetical and untested. The only way to be anything is to do, to put myself out there and try. So here I am. Doing. How’s it going so far?

* Hopefully prospective clients, publishers, and other people who may actually want to work with me and read my work.