50,000 words

"If you have the chance to fulfill a lifelong dream, go for it.  Don't worry about the bumps and bruises along the way." - Andrew Zimmern

Yeah, I got this quote from, of all things, "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern."  As I sat in my room Sunday morning and watched Zimmern's trek through Hong Kong, I was especially tickled when he gave that little piece of advice at the end of the episode - right after taking part in his own Martial Arts film.

So, this brings me to the title of this post.  50,000 words.  That's how much I've written so far.  My goal?  75,000 words.  According to Yahoo!Answers, this is around a standard novel size (or about 300 pages if you wanted to get all specific about it).

This blog is going to chronicle the times - both good and bad - that I have while I try to accomplish my own life-long dream.  My roommates can attest that when left to my own devices I tend to write.  And so, for two years, I've been in a relationship with writing.  At first it was very casual, and I would only hang out with writing when I was bored.  But then something happened - I found a story that wanted to be told - a story that has helped me work through the various pains and misfortunes that I've experienced in my own life.  So for two years, I've been trying to figure out how to put all of my crazy thoughts into a series of crazier adventures.

There's something wonderfully cathartic about creating your own world, and putting your fears, flaws, and heart into all of the characters that end up inhabiting said world.  In some strange way, you end up loving all of them - and yes, even the terrible ones can still be loved.  Or maybe I'm just weird like that.

I won't go into much detail, because I like that whole "secrecy" thing - and, frankly, I'm kind of the superstitious sort.  I'm already worried that by starting this blog, I've doomed myself to never finishing the project, never finding an agent, never getting published, etc.  Lots of nevers and self-doubt.  But I've learned that you just reach a point where you push all of that out of your mind and ask a few awesome friends to read over what you've written.  Putting myself out there has never been so terrifying.  Or electrifyingly exciting.

I will give you this little hint about my story - I've always loved two things - mythology and fairy tales.  What I'm writing involves a twisty take on the latter.  And it involves a character (or two...or more bwahaha) who may have their own Disney films.  Said characters almost also definitely have their own Grimm Brothers tales, Perrault tales, and a few others that I won't list of 'cause being mysterious is awesome.

I assure you, though, that I am not merely here to recite the lines of "A Whole New World" to you (but maybe that will be my next post).

After a lot of soul searching, I've decided that what I want most out of this project is to tell the story I want to tell, and then let the dice roll.  Even if this thing never goes farther than my computer and the few people that I've sent really rough drafts to, I'll have accomplished something that is a lot harder than it seems.  And cross a somewhat Herculean task off of my bucket list.

So, here I am. It's almost midnight and I'm still typing.  Because I love it.

I've made it to 50,000 words and have a story that I'm really proud of - it's been an awesome journey so far, and I can't wait for all of the bumps, bruises, and happy accidents that will inevitably happen as I fulfill a lifelong dream.

Here's to 25,000 more words and the hope that I don't get carpal tunnel from all of this (that was totally a joke.  I think.)!

Thanks for reading :)
Alex