Tonight I finally launched the new writing project that I’ve been working on for the last month and anticipating for far longer than that, and let me say that it’s a combination of both exciting and terrifying at the same time!
Scott’s Guide to Life – a collection of essays about the world as I see it…
http://www.scottsguidetolife.com
I’ve been entertaining the idea of a “passion project” for a couple of years now because I wanted a place where I could write about specific things in my life that are important to me in a greater depth than would really make sense for my blog, and that just wouldn’t really fit in any of my other existing sites. At the same time, I’ve always been intrigued by various writers that put out books of essays about their lives – most of what you’ll find in the humor section these days, for example, isn’t so much my beloved humor columns anymore as it is a collection of works from somebody like Mindy Kaling or Tina Fey or really anybody … the list goes on forever.
What makes those books unique, though, is that they’re typically collections of stories that the writer has to share, which is something that I’ve only dabbled in over the years because although most of my humor columns start with something that happened to me, from there anything goes and it isn’t always about sharing an experience any more as it is just riffing off being goofy by the time all is said and done.
So I liked that idea of kicking off a project that would allow me to explore a more personal side to my writing, but at the same time I’ve got to admit that now that I’ve clicked Publish and it’s out there bobbing around social media, it’s also kind of terrifying … I guess because on purpose a couple of the first topics that I chose to write about are pretty personal:
And it’s tricky because honestly it felt sort of freeing when I’d first finished writing each of these essays, like I’d finally put my thoughts in order and could get them off my chest and out of my head for a change, and yet now that they’re out on the Internet I can’t help but wonder how they’ll be received … will other people appreciate my openness and take something away from them? Will they just get mocked because the web is full of assholes? Will anybody even read them at all???
I guess I have to keep telling myself that my hope is for the first of those options, and from there we just have to see what happens. Sara even reminded me tonight of something that I wrote in the one about writing … basically that before anything else, you have to write for yourself … so as much as I hate my own words getting thrown back in my face, deep down I know that *I* got something out of writing these and that still counts for something. 😉
Still, I hope that they gain a little traction, even if it takes a while, because in brainstorming for this project I came up with a whole list of stories that I could tell and I’m really intrigued about exploring quite a few of them! I’ve only written very limited amounts about IVF and the years that we struggled trying to get pregnant. I always like writing about what moving away from home meant to me and how it was one of the best decisions I ever made. There are plenty of things that I’ve learned about marriage and writing and parenting, and even just exploring some more of those passions in depth like my loves for Legos and video games and stuff like that I think would be a lot of fun.
Like I said, the opportunity is both exciting and scary, but at least it’s finally out in the open now, so there’s no more stalling on that front! Now all that’s left for me to do is share another story, and another, and another, and see where it goes from there.
The essay that I’ve already started for next week is about managing the common stresses of vacationing at Walt Disney World, so hopefully I can have some fun and maybe even do a little good at the same time… 😀