Dare to Dream

Some people don’t dream. They believe that a dream is something unattainable. If you dream you will get your hopes up and life will just let you down. Why would you want to chase after something that will always be just out of your reach? Life is not a dream. It’s dirty and it’s hard. There is no place in the world for dreams. I've heard all these before.

It’s hard for me to understand that way of thinking. I dream, I dream big. I don’t mean I dream that someday I’ll publish a book that I can show to my friends and family and say "I finally did it." No. That’s not a dream, that’s just too easy these days. Anyone could publish a book with just the click of a button, even terribly written ones. My dream is that one day, after I have about 40 books published, people will know who I am like they do King, Rowling or Rice. If you’re a reader, you know these names as well as their faces gracing the back inside cover of their books. I want that. To be known as a writer without being asked.

I don’t know if I’ll ever be successful, or even write 40 novels, but if I didn’t dream, I wouldn’t even write one. I wouldn’t be writing this blog. I wouldn’t even work. What for? What’s the point of anything if there is nothing you are working towards? I know, those are not dreams, those are goals. I don’t see why we should treat them differently.

Art by Peter Koevari via WANACommons

Maybe it’s just the way I’m wired. I can’t do anything small. I dive in and consume everything or I don’t even look its way. I’m obsessive, anal, an extremist. This personality has been a stumbling block in dozens of projects I’ve worked on over the years. I’ve overwhelmed myself and then just walked away.

Well, that’s not happening again. It doesn’t matter what your big dream is. The dream is the first step to becoming successful. You dream, and then you work out how to make it an attainable goal. Sometimes it takes more work for you than other people, but all those champions and successful people out there started out with nothing but a dream. They fought like nobody else and they reached the top.

You’ll meet haters and doubters who will try to bring you down, but just brush them off and remember what that means. People wouldn’t bother putting you down if they didn’t see that you were reaching for something currently beyond your grasp. Let them live in their dreamless world, keep reaching, don’t ever get up, or you’ll be just like them. They fear that your success would make them reflect on their own failures in life, their dreams that they didn’t fight for. It's never too late to start dreaming. You're never too old.

WARNING WRITER SPEAK:

I’ve spent the last two years turning this blog into a great research tool for strange, legendary, mistaken, and exotic weapons and the cultures they came from. I got away from just being human and talking about human things. Since I decided to write about everything that rattles around in my chaotic mind, I’ve realized I have so much to say. I’ve been holding out on you guys. I’ve been working on several things to post on the blog, and get my books back on track.

I ground my mind to the bone the last two years to change everything about my writing methods. You remember that dream I had? I took Devil Dog and had it professionally edited and even got a quick critique from Kristen Lamb. I was scared of what either person would think. They both came back with similar positives and negatives. They had different ideas how to handle the negatives and so for the last 10 months I went back to the drawing board. I dissected the entire novel and laid out all of its organs. I found the diseased or unproductive parts, and made new scenes to smooth the story flow and remove the jarring intros I originally had.

In two weeks, I’ll be starting from the beginning and writing it as fast as I can. I’ve learned is the best way to get it done, after a rough draft and outline are designed to knock out all the kinks. Or at least I’m hoping so. I guess we’ll all find out soon enough.

I’m also learning to do artwork with a computer. I don’t have any fancy software yet, but I’m getting better at drawing what I can see with photos. My current project is a picture that I once had up on the Tessen post, Kitana from Mortal Kombat. I really loved the picture there, and so I’m trying to recreate it. It won’t be near as beautiful as the original artist’s but it will be my best work so far. I finally figured out how to straighten my lines and draw circles. See you soon and thanks for sticking with me all this time.