Yearly Archives: 2007

As I was reading Arcady and Zene: A Decent Christmas out loud to myself–which I always do during my revisions, as it’s a great way to catch awkward phrasing–I realized a couple things.

My voice, it’s got a carrying quality to it that people oft complain about. My voice is also pitched pretty low for a woman, but that appears to make it carry all the better.

I read out loud pretty well–with fiction, I do my best to vary my voice range, and add in personality to the character voices. Not professional work by any means, but I didn’t stumble much, probably because I knew this short little work inside and out.

I write decently, according to folks who have no interest in boosting my ego (i.e., not my friends, who I would never ask to beta for that reason alone).

My Arcady and Zene pieces are either very short (1500 words) or broken up into short segments, so I shouldn’t wear myself out if I were to, say, read them out loud for an audience.

Like, say, a podcast.

And given that I can’t draw, and we humans love visual and audio, this would be a… dare I say it… unique(ish) twist.

Now I must attempt to learn how to podcast. This’ll be a learning experience and hopefully fun.

As I was reading Arcady and Zene: A Decent Christmas out loud to myself–which I always do during my revisions, as it’s a great way to catch awkward phrasing–I realized a couple things.

My voice, it’s got a carrying quality to it that people oft complain about. My voice is also pitched pretty low for a woman, but that appears to make it carry all the better.

I read out loud pretty well–with fiction, I do my best to vary my voice range, and add in personality to the character voices. Not professional work by any means, but I didn’t stumble much, probably because I knew this short little work inside and out.

I write decently, according to folks who have no interest in boosting my ego (i.e., not my friends, who I would never ask to beta for that reason alone).

My Arcady and Zene pieces are either very short (1500 words) or broken up into short segments, so I shouldn’t wear myself out if I were to, say, read them out loud for an audience.

Like, say, a podcast.

And given that I can’t draw, and we humans love visual and audio, this would be a… dare I say it… unique(ish) twist.

Now I must attempt to learn how to podcast. This’ll be a learning experience and hopefully fun.

“What can I give my readers that’s unique(ish), that will bring them back for more?”

It’s a question that troubles many a blogger, professional or not. What focus do you have? Are you just another “writing advice” blog, of which there are already many, in fact entire websites devoted to the cause? Where’s your individual voice? Have you got one?

So I’ve thought about this.

And I decided that what I can offer mainly is a blog about a journey to becoming a Writer. Of course, I’m not totally sure how I’m going to do this when faced with a rather vexing roadblock to going officially professional, but perhaps that just means this will be a unique journey, but hopefully one with elements everyone can identify with.

Fortunately I have already started with a post about my own influences.

Other areas I will cover:

• Thoughts about Sherlock Holmes and House, M.D., which is a relatively unique(ish) niche and not a topic I thought I’d spend a lot of time on, but sometimes destiny is thrust upon ye. No fan fiction, I promise.
• My stories, some of which will be nowhere else. Arcady and Zene may spend the rest of their lives on this blog after all.
• Bits of my experiences of life, as a constant outsider looking in.

In summary, I’ll be offering you me. And that’s the best that any blogger can do. I hope I am to your taste; or at least that I amuse you.