(Original About page, the beginning of my work on this website and on taking my writing seriously as a career. Enjoy the rambling pledge I made to myself!)

I am considering this moment a beginning for my writing career. (And I say career with grand optimism.) Perhaps it is only the beginning of this part of what could become my career. It is likely arbitrary. Mainly it is sitting myself down and telling myself that I will take my writing seriously, that I will pursue it, that I will make it a priority in my time. I’ve taken that pledge before, and I’ll take it again whenever necessary.

This moment for me seems like an opportune time for me to solidify that pledge to myself.

I recently graduated from college. Like many people at this stage, I have been in school of various forms for a very long time. And while I was in high school, while I was in community college, while I went through undergraduate studies, I set aside my own writing. I wrote for my classes, I wrote research papers, seminar discussions, study reflections, and very occasionally I would write a journal entry or a short story or a piece of opinion that was my own. My writing oasis during school became NaNoWriMo, the one crazy chaotic month out of the school year that prioritizing my own writing over schoolwork was totally acceptable and expected. It was the reminder of how much I actually did love writing.

Over the last few months since graduation, I’ve been working to get back into the practice of writing something, something of mine, every day. To bring the prioritization and love of writing from November into the everyday. At some point in the process I attended my second writing conference.

The first time I had attended I considered it practice, first experiences, and getting an idea of what I should expect and plan for. This most recent time was still new experiences, I still was unprepared, I still didn’t have writing that was ready, and I still wasn’t ready to attempt any professional networking. Then when I came back from this conference, I was energized to work on my writing, to work on taking my writing seriously, to work on taking myself seriously, and prepare.

That’s still a process I’m working on. I don’t feel professional, I don’t always manage to sit down and write. I get distracted easily. But, I’ve decided these goals are significant and justified, and that I want to pursue them. I want to pursue them now.

This is my starting point.

I hope you’ll join me.