Not waiting any more
Okay, so I had this big post about feeling like I'm waiting for something, and the realization that I have to make things happen if they're going to happen. And I turned 40 since then. And I think the "scary" thing about turning 40 isn't the realization that you're getting older, as many young folks thing it is... it's the realization that your time is limited and you haven't used the past twenty years as effectively as you wish you had. Which is a lot of what my "waiting" post was about.
Over the years, my wife and I have passed up tech-related business opportunities because they were risky. But looking back, I can see several points where we could have been the pioneers, if only we'd been willing to take the risk.
But those were just wish-I-hads... it's the dreams that have stuck with me for years, slowly being squashed by the weight of daily routine, that I'm most concerned about.
So I've enrolled in a 12-week "Fundamentals of Fiction Writing" workshop, through http://www.writersonlineworkshops.com/, which is a branch of Writers Digest Books. It's not cheap (to me), but I've got some birthday money which cuts it down to something I can squeeze into my budget. (I'm in the class starting 08/14, if you'd like to join me.)
I know a lot of "theory" about writing fiction (I have a huge library on the subject, in the guise of "it's good to know story techniques for my roleplaying"), but it's amazing how little I've actually written. I'm afraid of writing crap, really, even though I believe in the "million words of crap" theory (attributed to Ray Bradbury, but that has been requoted and reworded so many times, I can't find the original quote). So taking a workshop is as much about deadlines and outside expectations as it is needing someone to teach me the craft. "Fundamentals" syllabus does pretty much what I want... stepping through exercises on scenes, characters, dialog and so on, finally ending with writing a complete 3000-word short story (or a full novel chapter) as the final assignment. I've never finished a short-story in my life. I've never written a full novel chapter, though I've started a few.
I don't have real specific goals, other than to learn to work through the process of writing fiction. I don't have any real dreams of publishing a novel (though it'd be cool), and the most I'm realistically hoping for is to sell a short-story or two. At this stage, I want to overcome the obstacles that keep me from moving past opening paragraphs. My dream is to write a novel, while selling it is just icing on the cake.
So there... moving forward. Making my dreams happen instead of waiting for things to change. Yay, me. :)