My Oscar Speech

Is it a copout that I’m spending my last day of Write 365 as a thank you letter?

Probably, but give me this allowance. I’ve worked pretty hard over the past year.

Thank you to Peter Speer, who inspired me to start this whole thing. He was the first one I saw talking about it on twitter, and a simple question about it started my year-long literary journey.

Thank you to Dan Sackett and Andrew Dugan, who provided early inspiration in the form of comments and support. It felt good knowing that someone was in on this with me. It felt like we were going on a journey together, and even though the entire year didn’t go as planned, I think you guys put out some fantastic stuff. I am constantly in awe of your writing and ideas, guys. And as much as you say I inspire you, Dan, your work in both fiction and graphic design inspires me.

Thank you to Jordan, who has supported me without fail since day one when I told her I do a little bit of writing. She is one of a select few who has read my completed novel, and her continued love and support drives me to write every day so that one day maybe I can use this to give her all the things she deserves.

Thank you to anyone who inspired me. Several of you found your ways in my writing, and for that I thank you. Chad, Wish, Ashley, Melissa, Joey — all of you, in some way, made such an impact on me that I had to put it down in writing. And I thank you for the groundwork and the inspiration.

And finally, thank you to anyone who I told my resolution to. Anyone who said, “Hey, that sounds like a cool idea. Good luck,” or, “Writing every day? Wow, that sounds tough.” To anyone who ever indulged my countless speeches about why I write and what I plan to do with it, thank you.

It is only fitting that my final piece of fiction tops out at 365 words. Fitting and also intentional. But hey, I can be cheesy. I’ve earned it.

Bring on 2012!

So what now?

What becomes of my writing now? Will I still write every day? Will I still update this site?

I definitely plan on writing every day. I’ve gotten into a pretty good flow now, and I don’t see that changing. But I don’t think I’m going to use this site very often. Maybe I’ll come back and update something I’m writing. Maybe not. But either way, I’ll keep it up so I can look at some of my writing and possibly generate some ideas from the dialogue I wrote.

Article on the NFL conundrum

I wrote an article for TFB today. Think even as this year ends, I’ll still be writing there almost daily.

Favorite story

I was really happy with a lot of stories this year, but I think my favorite one was Passing Time. It was inspired by a dream I had. The characters were all friends of mine, some from completely different circles. Wish has never met Chad, I’m pretty sure. I have submitted this story to a few mags because I’m so proud of it. Hopefully I hear back.

Home stretch: what I’ve done wrong

There are a few things I am not proud of during this stretch. For one, I do feel like I should have finished more than two or three stories. It’s nice to have a lot of beginnings, but I only completed a few things. When I started this, I imagined that if I did finish the project, I would be armed with a bunch of finished stories, and that is not the case.

I also saw my enthusiasm for updating this blog wane in the last few months. I was doing my writing, but with the start of the footbawl blog I no longer had to air most of my writing on this site. So there have been many updates of less than ten words, and that’s something I’m not proud of.

Tomorrow I’m going to talk about my favorite story this year, and speculate on what’s next for my writing and for this website.

Home stretch: what I’ve done right

In this write 365 project, I’ve done a lot of good things and I’ve done some things I wasn’t happy about or proud of. For “yesterday’s” post I’ll talk of the good things, and for today’s post I’ll talk of the bad ones.

I am really happy with a lot of my writing this year. Something that could be seen as a bad thing is I didn’t finish a lot of stories. But I actually see that as a good thing. The way I look at it, there are at least five novellas/novels that I can now go back to at any point. I never would have started these if it weren’t for this new years resolution I took so long ago.

I’m also proud of how it helped my thought processes. Because of the pressure to write every day, I was always thinking about what to write next. I never felt dormant in my creative processes, and I think that helped me become a better writer.

Lastly, I am very happy that I’ve gotten this far. I imagined that I would trail off early on, or at least by the summer when I was getting ready for my big move across the country. But in spite of a few hiccups, I’ve made it. Only 4 days left, and then the first resolution I ever made will be completed.

Christmas

I’ve never really been a fan of Christmas. December is a dreary month, and a few tragedies around this time have stuck with me for a long time, possibly longer than they should have. But I think all I really needed to enjoy the season was to leave my hometown for a few months, then come back for the holidays.