The Beginning – An Introduction

Committing to a beginning is notoriously difficult. Just ask Stephen King (On Writing) – “The scariest moment is always just before you start.” I much prefer to imagine myself in the middle or end stages of a project. I can see it now – a world in which the words are flowing, or no, even better, they have sprung out of my brain fully formed, sweetly perfectly shaped (as several young authors I’m irreverent towards/envious of sometimes claim has happened to them).

I have always deemed it easier to imagine being in the midst of something, in freefall, than at the start, on the precipice. At least in the middle of the fall you are active, not passive. However my tendency to visualize myself being active while I am passive has thus far not led me to the middle of things at all. It has usually just led me to more dreaded stagnancy.

So, I suppose, I have to will myself to instead imagine being still; being at the beginning. To see myself firmly at the passive place – the start.

The only claim I have to coming close to achieving perfection is in the art of procrastination. You could say I’m afraid of committment, always catastrophizing anything and everything that could go wrong before anything has even happened.

But that is all about to change. (I hope).

Welcome to my blog – where I’ll be sharing some written excerpts that I’m going to try to gift a lovely start, middle, and end. I can’t promise they’ll all be gripping. The thought that they might not be immediately arresting to a discerning reader used to stop me from wanting to write at all.

Now, I’m welcoming this thought as a complete lack of pressure on my shoulders. You’re not grading me, you’re not giving me a deadline, it doesn’t matter what you think. It only matters that I write! It only matters that I start at the beginning.

So here we go.

Here there will be a collection of written words (short fiction, personal essays, reviews etc.). All dedicated as a giant f*** you to the art of procrastination.