Week Fifteen: Brian B. Baker

 Write about anything

Why I Started Blogging

When I was 24, a friend of mine said to me, “Brian, you read a lot, why don’t you write a book? We’ve talked about it, you should do it.” He moved a few months after that discussion and we’ve lost contact.

A year or so after I learned my cousin was going to be published, and found her blog afterward. I thought to myself, If my cousin can get published, so can I.

A week later or so I started my blog, and it flopped. I started writing about politics, which is something that I thought I knew a lot about, I didn’t.

I started looking at things I was absolutely sure about. Writing, Buddhism, books, and movies are what I came up with.

I learn more about writing from blogging than I have any book on writing.

If you’re not doing a blog for any reason other to keep people informed of your life, family etc., then that’s fine. If you’re doing a blog because you want to be a writer of fiction or nonfiction, a blog will help, at least that’s my opinion.

A blog makes it so you have to sit down and write at least a few hundred words for your post, I try to do between 300-500, I try to never go over 500.

For every endeavour you must practice, it’s the same for writing as it is for sports. If you want to be good at a jump-shot in basketball, you’re at the park perfecting that shot.

My blog had inauspicious beginnings, but I’ve got a decent following right now, after nearly ten years  and many screw ups on my part, the most recent was an attempt at self-hosted, which I’ll never do again unless I’m published.

I started my blog to do something to get published, but along the way I’ve discovered there are many writers who get stuck on things, and find themselves searching for hope, help and someone to listen.

I’m good at listening, that comes from my day job as a bartender. Being a bartender lets me listen to people talking, and it’s helped me with my writing issues, most notably my dialogue.

Writing The Bleeding Inkwell began as something I did to be like my cousin. I found out along the way I had to be myself and people would listen.

Being a part of The Today Voice is another step in my learning process, and I’ve learned so much about myself from my responses to the prompts.

I’m looking forward to finishing my book by the end of the year and sending it to an agent.

Every word, every post and every day is another step.

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Brian B. Baker is an unpublished writer of Science Fiction/Fantasy and Horror. He’s been writing short stories since high school, and is certain it’s one of the few things that keeps him sane. Brian blogs at  The Bleeding Inkwell.