About every six months or so, I feel like I’m leagues more mature than my six-months-ago self. Now, at the dawn of 2014, I’m taking the self-discipline I got in 2013 after a much needed reevaluation of my time spent on social media (thanks, Lent, and thank you Christian tradition for inventing Lent) and shaping up to do a thing called building a platform.
I peaced out for a while because I lost interest in writing reviews. Not only had I stopped consuming at the pace I used to (I’m a slow reader and I can’t just get into ANY anime anymore), but I also realized that to actually get somewhere with writing reviews, people have to care about your opinion. Since I’m still, by and large, a nobody, nobody really cares if x book meets my standards or if y anime is compelling enough to watch every week. Also, I just cannot keep up with the seasonal anime schedule. It’s too much and it goes way too fast.
My problem was that I never talked about anything in my reviews. You can dig for them yourself if you’re so inclined, but there’s a reason why I’ve cleared out all my tags and categories and have created easily accessible links to only a few of those old posts. I filled this blog with bland crap because I was too scared of having my name attached to what I really thought about something. That and I just lost my voice, figuring that blogging couldn’t work for me. I have no interest in blogging about writing tips all the time because 24508624598 other people already do that. I can’t be much of an aniblogger either because, as I said before, I can’t keep up. Most of my free time has to be for my original writing or all of this is pointless.
So now, I’m combining interests. Writing JUST about writing is boring. Writing JUST about anime is boring/implausible since I’m late to the party on any good series. The truth is that I’m a hybrid in almost every way imaginable.
No, not that kind, but I do drive a Toyota.
The way I see it, I have to mix what I’ve learned with what I love. At a recent employee evaluation I had at my work, the executive director above my supervisor told me that I have a natural inclination for taking what I’ve learned from one project and applying it to new projects. She told me that many people have to be taught to do that.
So, that’s what I’m doing here on this blog now. Learning, making weird connections, and applying. There’s a fascinating conversation going on between pop culture and social change/structure. Some of the dialogue goes under the radar and needs to be pointed out while others are totally awesome. The writers and storytellers of the world are right in the middle of it.
I’m a white, cisgender Latina, so there’s a ton of stuff I can’t see. But one thing I’m certain of is the fact that stories are important. Who we tell stories about and HOW we tell those stories can leave lasting impacts on individuals and even entire generations. Everything is on a spectrum and it’s impossible to encompass it all in a single blog, a single book, or even a range of books.
Throw Christianity into that mix and suddenly I’m like “What do I even call this mishmash?” The complexities of the Christian faith and tradition, which I will never fully comprehend, plus the complexities of intersectionality, which I will never fully comprehend, leads to me not comprehending A LOT of things.
Maybe that’s all just part of being a 20something.
In 2014…
2014 is the year when I explore all of these complexities in relation to writing stories. 2014 is the year when I have a new blog post every week exploring some very tiny facet of this web that’s mostly hidden. 2014 is the year when I finish my first novel, send my novella out to various publications, and finish and maybe self-publish one of my side projects. It’s the year of reading more books and actually attempting to make this whole writing thing sort of a second job.
I have the discipline. All that’s left is the application.