Welcome back, good people of the blogosphere, and happy Monday. We're going to have a beautiful week, so prepare yourselves! Today, we'll be taking a look at some of my earliest writing (both here on the blog and in my first novel, which coincide, weirdly) and see just how cringe we can make the experience (for me, obviously). This should be a riot. I haven't visited my early blog posts for a long time. haha
If you're ready to get going and laugh alongside me, grab some coffee and settle in. Here we go!
My first-ever blog post can be found here. This was back when I didn't understand what the hell a blog was or how to run one. I literally thought I could write a gabillion posts on one book. Boy, how naive was I?
Bold as I am, my dumbass posted a snippet from my book, and when I read it now, I want to slap myself silly. Let's just grab the first paragraph and have a looksee.
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He screamed, louder this time, as Temujin cut off another one of his fingers. I involuntarily flexed my own in response to the act. I had never seen a man fight like my friend had last night. It was like something other than his own mind was working his muscles, causing him to strike and slash like a harbinger of death. It made me appreciate that I had made a friend of him and not an enemy. When he began to peel back the man’s skin from his body, I almost vomited. I took a few steps away and turned my head.
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While this isn't terrible, it's not great, either. How would I write this today? Let's just see...
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He screamed again, louder than the first time, as Temujin removed another one of the man's fingers with the swift strike of a blade.
I involuntarily clenched my fists. I'd never seen a man fight like Temujin had last night. It was as though he was possessed, a demon from Hell working his muscles, causing him to strike and slash like a harbinger of death. It made me glad I'd made a friend of him and not an enemy. When he began to peel the man’s skin back from his body, I took a few steps away and turned my head, nausea roiling.
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This is how I'd revise. New character, new paragraph, and staying in one tense (first-person past). While Jamuka is the person from whom we're getting the story in the prologue, it's still about the other man. Not a bad opening line for a book though.
Now, let's go back and take a peek at my first advice blog. You can find it here. It's not exactly advice, but it is book-world news about closing bookstores.
All I can think of as I read my rambling diatribe is the sad loss of contractions. You'd think, someone who writes like I do now would've been into contractions from the start. Nope. I suppose I loved writing everything out formally. *vomit* It also sounds so transactional. Like, who the frack did I think I was? Zero humility. Though I still have very lofty opinions of myself, they're much more focused than they were back then. hahaha
Okay, those two were from 2012 (I've been around a while), so let's jump forward to 2014. Check this one out. We're talking about fun writing exercises, and I seem to have adopted my style for a greeting by then. I also have become far more comfortable with my readers, and even went above and beyond by making printable things for y'all.
Gonna jump forward to 2016 and see how we fare now. Surprisingly, I found a post where I talked about my MS diagnoses. Didn't think I'd done that before. Don't I look stupid? LOL! You can see it here, and you'll notice I was putting a lot of images in my posts back then. Scroll down to the comments section, and if those don't make you tear up... Yeah, you don't have a heart.
I also noticed a BUNCH of my 2016 posts were cover reveals and new releases. How freaking dull am I? Jeesh.
Okay, now we'll go to 2018 and see where I was...
44 posts that year compared to 71 the year before and hundreds the years before that. You could literally see me slowing down. *cries in my coffee* I even remember the troll who caused me to halt the blog. Boy, was that frustrating. I got nasty comments telling me how I wasn't doing enough... I wrote a whole post about it. Well, to hell with them. I was doing what I could at the time. Ugh. Don't sign up for that newsletter!! It's dead and gone. Also to be resurrected sometime in the future!
I did come across this beauty of a post while I was digging. It's still how I write today and how I'm able to crank out thousands of words in just a few hours. Go enjoy it because I seem to have honed my blog voice by then.
I've gotten awfully wordy today! I hope you had a good laugh and were riveted to the page long enough to get down here. I'm excited about what Wednesday will bring, and I hope to see you all back here for that. This was fun and cathartic. :)
That's all for today, folks!
Until next time, WRITE ON! <----this has stayed with this blog since day one. *happy tear*
Jo
