Blog Reboot 3.0 (I think)

Hi.  I’m me (Erick Melton).  This is my blog.  

I’ve been doing this for a while.  Since 2005 according to the archive of entries on this site.  I started blogging originally because it was something I thought I should do.  I wanted (and still want) to become a professional writer.  Someone who spends their working hours writing stuff like stories, novels, scripts, articles and the like, things to read, and getting paid by people to do so.  

I went a while doing this.  Eventually I sort of ground to a halt.  I felt that I didn’t have much of anything to say and that there were precious few people who wanted to hear or read it.  

This may have been the precursor to a decision I made at the end of 2019, beginning of 2020, to stop writing entirely.  The specifics of my reason for stopping aren’t very clear to me at this point.  I remember an overwhelming sense of frustration couple with the thought that I was “too late” or had “taken too long” to make that dream come true.  So I stopped and focused on daily business.  

That lasted for about three months.  It was the time everyone was hearing about the Covid virus, and about three months before, in my part of the world, people were told to wear masks, restaurants were closing their doors, and I started doing my job from my apartment instead of the office.  Once I had started working remotely, and didn’t need to spend two hours a day in traffic going to then from work, giving me a lot more time on my hands.  So I decided to give writing a try, picking up a novel I’d written a rough draft with the intent of writing it and then trying to get it published.  

The novel became the first book in a fantasy trilogy, which made it necessary to plot out the story arcs of all three books before I started my rewrite (in order to make sure all the seeds I needed to plant in Book 1 for the other two books were identified).  As of the end of 2021 I had completed that task and with the start of 2022 I started to rewrite the first novel in earnest.  

Restarting the blog seemed a logical necessity.  A return of all the necessary tasks I had given myself to do when I first (and second, and third or fourth) set myself on the path to one day do this for a living.  

There is one thing that is different from the last time.  I have no idea what the point of writing a blog is.  I didn’t before either, but at least this time I know I don’t know and that puts me a leg on on my previous effort.  I think.  I hope.  

I went online and did a search of reasons to write a blog.  Here are some I found: 

To share a topic they’re passionate about.

To teach or share about a topic they have some expertise.

To express themselves.

To share experiences.  

To process their own thoughts; to learn by doing.  

To find like-minded people.

To confront fears.

To make money.    

With the exception of making money (except in the “some day” zone with my writing in general), I’ve posted blog entries that tried to do each of these things, or two or even three in combination.  But the reason for posting seemed to change each time it came to write an entry.  The blog itself was a catchall for articles and essays that were generated with the basic concept of, “this is something I feel I should do in order to achieve the goal I’ve had since I was a Jr. High School student.”  Put words on paper and buy groceries and pay the rent with the money I got for doing so.  

Well, since I know I don’t know the “REASON” for doing this, I am going to make finding that out as the reason.  So there.  I’m starting this journey without a map, an image of where it is I’m trying to get to, and a vague idea as to why I want to get there.  There are people in history that have discovered continents with less.  

The one other thing I will do is layout how I intend to proceed.  Sort of a contract, with you (whomever you might be) that is reading this.  A list of expectations I will do my best to fulfill.  

I am going to schedule for myself two postings per month.  The 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month (just did a quick check to verify that every month has a least four Sundays.  They do with one of them, October, having five this year).  

I’m going to write about whatever strikes my fancy, but I can tell you that the articles will generally come from the following areas of interest for me: 

Things I’ve written or am writing

Things I’ve read.  

Things I’ve seen. 

The languages I’m studying (Japanese, Korean, Spanish).  

The trips I take.  

The trips I want to take.  

Politics.

Baseball.  

The politics in baseball

The baseball of politics.  

People I’ve seen, met, or heard of that fascinate me.

I’ll make the postings about a thousand words (shooting for that “short and sweet” zone).  

I very well may, at times, use profanity.  But I will do my best to make sure that it is appropriate and necessary to convey what it is I’m trying to convey. 

I will be as honest and as accurate in what I write, and will note when something I am putting forth is based on speculation, memory, or is just something I think is the “way things should be.”  I will post any replies to my blog entries that are written in the same vein.  

That’s it.  Hope you come back and enjoy the show.