500 Words Per Day

Do introductions suck to write for everyone?

Or is it just me?

I decided today to take my love of short stories — short horror stories, to be precise — and expand my hobby from reading them to writing them. A qualifier may also be needed…I’m terrible at remembering what I’ve read, and I’m not likely to engage in witty conversation about it due to that fact. I’ve determined my writing skills are likely not noteworthy thanks to this, as well. So what could I possibly write here that would compel people to read? I’ll be honest witchya…probably not much. Hopefully, though, as time goes on and my skills improve, there will be something here akin to seeing someone very, very bad at something progressively become less bad and, maybe, become an inspirational amount of “If she can do that then I surely can do this…” whatever your this may be.

So I write for you, Dear Reader.

And, yes, of course, I write for me.

It’s been too long since I’ve had something to get excited about and love/hate enough to want to keep doing it even after the initial shine has worn off. Writing seems to be that thing for me. I can remember winning writing contests in school before I became jaded with the idea of doing what adults told me to do. Letting myself fall out of love with something I enjoyed and that I was good at is probably one of those common missteps of youth. But I keep coming back to it. Writing on napkins, my kids’ notebooks, my random notebooks and loose pieces of paper, creating single word docs with no real intention of finishing them. Meanwhile, the random writings don’t stop, and since I’ve been struggling to find my thing — the thing you love to do and can never see yourself not doing it — maybe writing is a little more of that than I’ve thought it to be all these years.

On this website I’d like to share my short stories with anyone who would like to read them. My goal is one short story per month by writing 500 words a day. This should allow me to finish one story, while also allowing me to explore a new story midway, should the inspiration strike. To keep me productive without overworking myself is a subgoal, here. On this blog, I’d like to share my journey of learning how to even do this writing thing in a way that will let me get all the wild stories out of my head and done well enough for people to enjoy reading them. I’d also like to share my sources of inspiration and other fun topics.

Speaking of inspiration, albeit semi-unrelated, a major source of mine is a graphic novel blog I used to read called False Positive: Webcomic Horror, Sci-fi, & Fantasy Anthology. Unfortunately, the creator, Mike Walton, passed away just before I found his site. We won’t get any new inspiration from that source, but the site is still up and worth a look and re-look for continued inspiration from what he shared while he was here. While I’m no one’s graphic artist, I am inspired to create spooky, creepy, and otherwise unsettling stories at regular intervals just like Mike did, so I feel compelled to shoutout his work here. He definitely made a loyal reader out of me, even if the reading is limited.

And while this introduction may not have been the most elegant…or precise…or awe-inspiring, I hope to make loyal readers out of you, too.