Why a new site?

For a while now I’ve blogged at Random Curiosity, both episodically and under editorials that once carried the Stilts Out Loud name. That’s no more – those editorials are now known as My Way or the Anime (as more than half of them were called anyway), with this site inheriting the Stilts Out Loud name. But why?

Anime is a passion of mine, but it’s not the only one. The reason I wanted to write for RandomC was because of another passion of mine, the main one, which is writing. I wanted to practice writing, and for that I took the advice of an excellent marketer and a very wise man, Seth Godin:

Writer’s block isn’t hard to cure.
Just write poorly. Continue to write poorly, in public, until you can write better.
…
Do it every day. Every single day. Not a diary, not fiction, but analysis. Clear, crisp, honest writing about what you see in the world. Or want to see. Or teach (in writing). Tell us how to do something.

(Look at the date of that article, and compare it to the day I started with RandomC. September 23rd and January 1st. I think I talked to Divine for the first time within days of reading that article. That’s the power of great writing.)

I only took part of Seth’s advice, though. I did analysis, in public, and on a deadline. I didn’t write every day, though. Okay, so actually I did – even when I didn’t have a post I usually wrote something else, some fiction or an editorial or a season preview or scribbled down something random during lunch at work. But I didn’t do it publicly. I didn’t have people watching me for any but those 1-3 posts a week on anime. I have so much else I’d like to say! Like about that fiction thing I mentioned a moment ago, and about the dream it represents.

This is a blog about that dream, about what I truly want to do with my time. Here I’m going to write about writing, about fiction and storytelling and my goal of becoming an author, even though its silly and stupid and probably a waste of time. I don’t care. I’m going to do it anyway. Watch me.

I’m going to write about motivation and inspiration; motivation for me and inspiration for you, perhaps, or maybe the reverse. I’m going to talk about what propels me forward, what makes me tick, about the progress I’m making, and the mistakes I’m tallying up by the boatload. And more things I haven’t thought about yet, I bet.

Most of all though, I’m just going to write. Maybe I won’t post every day, but I’m certainly going to try. My goal is to wake up, sit down, and write something for this blog every single day. To write about writing, and life, and habits, and fears, and most of all, the great and silly dream that I am shooting for.

Hey, did you hear? I’m writing a novel. Wrote it already, in fact. Now I just need to edit it. I want to finish it, polish it, and release it for all of you to read, with my name on the front (my real name!) and pretty pictures inside and the whole shebang. Then I want to do it again and again, until my days are filled with the wonderful stories I’m telling you. Hopefully they’ll be wonderful. I’ll try, at any rate.

That’s my dream, and to make it a reality, I think I need to talk about it. I need people to listen and hold me accountable for it. I need to be ashamed if I don’t buckle down and work, because I’ll have to come here and tell you all, oh, no, I haven’t gotten much done this week because I’ve been sooooo busy. As if that’s a good excuse.

Welcome to Stilts Out Loud, the insane ravings of a fevered dreamer’s mind. Whether to success or failure, it’s time to see where this goes.