Words About Words

If it wasn't abundantly clear by now I really love writing. To be fair, I really love a lot of things.

I really love sleeping. That's for dang sure. At least, in the morning I love sleeping. At night I love to stay up and watch all the movies and read all the books. 

I really love dancing. It kind of explains why I've spent a huge percentage of my life engaged in that activity and have endured foot surgery and gone back to dancing. 

I really love my family. That means my Trenton, and my parents and my siblings, and my sweet niece and my adorable sisters-in-law and all my in-laws in fact, and also my extended family. I have some pretty rocking relatives. 

I really love superheroes. Oh my gosh, all the feelings do I get. And sometimes that includes supervillains. Mostly just in the case of Loki. Oh British people - making such likable bad guys. Ew, but not always. Some are just vile. However, that discussion can be saved for a whole other blog post devoted entirely to such a wonderful debate with myself. 

I really love food. Making it, smelling it, looking at pictures of it, and even, yes, EATING IT.

And honestly this post is turning into one which should be called things I love. 

Or even things I real love. 

But this post is about WRITING I promise it to you. Sincerely and with great conviction. 

I've been spending a lot of time writing or at least thinking about writing lately. Even though my actual 500 words a day doesn't take all that much time per day, it does put stories into my mind and get me thinking all the time. I've also been reading a lot this summer (good thing Trenton is awesome at falling asleep with the light on because I've been having a hard time turning the light off and shutting those silly books). Reading, while not writing, makes me think more about writing. For definitely.

Well, my main focus for the majority of the summer writing-wise has been my novel. Probably followed by this blog. However, last Friday I decided I was going to update a story I started writing three years ago (yeah. Way back in High School.) 

The thing is, it's a piece of fanfiction. And to be completely honest, sometimes I feel a little ashamed of it. Why am I spending time playing with other people's characters (JK Rowling's, to be specific)? One of the main reasons is because it means I can be published NOW. Sure, not for pay, and only online, but it means I get people reading my stories.

Not just a couple people. Somehow, this silly Harry Potter fanfic I decided to write on a whim one day turned into kind of a big deal. Over 1,400 people get emailed every single time I add a single thing to that story. Another 410,000 from countries all over the world including obscure places like New Guyana and Kyrgyzstan have read it at some point. That's kind of, um, insane. I'm not trying to toot my own horn. I don't think it's that great. My brother thinks its "creepy", but it's gotten very popular.

I am extremely well aware that in comparison to the readership of many actual books, 417,860 reads isn't truly that many. But it's way more people than have read anything else I've written. Seeing how many people read it and comment on it in the first two days a new chapter goes up kind of gives me a writer's high. I want to write again and receive feedback again. 

I want my actual novel to be read and liked and for people to beg me to write more. I don't know if that will ever happen, but it's quite a lovely little dream. It's encouraging, at the very least, that there is a group of people who already boost my self confidence as a writer, not because they're my friend or my parent or my husband but because they legitimately like reading what I wrote.

Well what prompted me to actually write this post today, was because this morning I received an email from a group called Fandom for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Basically, they collect fanfiction type stories and then people who donate to the cause get the stories submitted by various authors. That's all great, and that's awesome that people are willing to write for a good cause. I was just so. Darn. Flattered. They specifically emailed me, because my silly, random story gained enough attention that they thought my entry would be a selling point to people online. 

I AM JUST A LITTLE GIRL WRITING DOWN WORDS BECAUSE IT'S FUN! But the idea that maybe something I wrote will help people with blood cancer makes me feel like I'm not wasting my time when I'm writing. I'm not being a tortured artiste (purposeful extra 'e' there) who is neglecting other parts of life in order to create. I'm just expressing ideas, and it seems like that makes quite a few people happy.

So Imma keep on keeping on.

Also, shout out to Rylan and Sean who actually read this blog and make me feel like I should keep writing it, and to Aunt Deb. :) Anti-shout out to my sweetest big brother who makes fun of the things I say here, but thanks for reading it anyway.