I’m a big fan of metaphors. They help me conceptualise, well, just about everything. They also feel rather nerdy to me (I’m not sure why), and that just tickles me even more. ‘^^ If I can make an extended metaphor, so much the better, but I’ve learnt that even an illogically mixed metaphor can be helpful (to me, anyway). So, with that in mind . . .

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m in the process of building my creativity car. Later I shall blog some more about what all exactly I’m building, but, in the meantime, I already know what tracks I want to put my creativity car on — because my car is now apparently a train car. XD (I did warn you about the mixed metaphors! =P [Now if only it were also a time machine. . . . ]) These tracks have three rails:

One rail is this blog. (Of course!) This blog is a means of forcing myself to publish my writing on a short timescale — each post under a week. That means I can’t hide behind a long-ass project for which I don’t have to show anything for, literally, years. I have to put out something not just once a week but now twice a week. And that’s to keep me honest in the courage department.

But, of course, I mentioned that I want to write novels (specifically, romantic science fiction and fantasy novels), and novels of any stripe can take a long time to write. (Fantasy novels in particular can run extra long. For example, some might say some fantasy novels are more accurately described as fantasy doorstops tomes. [Yes, Jordan, Martin, Sanderson, I’m looking at you. -.-]) And so, naturally, that’s a rail, too — the long timescale rail.

(Yes, yes, I did just say that I couldn’t let myself hide behind a long-ass project . . . and here I am, totes writing a long-ass fantasy novel that will almost certainly take me a few years to write and publish. ‘^^ [And that’s being optimistic! What I’m writing at the moment is an epic fantasy novel that may, at the rate it’s going, turn into an epic fantasy series that may end up taking ten years to write. ‘^^] But, well, that’s also part of why I have this blog! To tell you, my dear lovely readers, that that’s what I’m doing, so you all can help keep me honest about that, too. XD)

But since my blog posts are free to read and my for-sale novels don’t even exist yet, you may be wondering what in the world I will be writing that I can actually sell before, uh, you know, the next decade. XD (Because, right, I said I wanted to become a successful author — and a big part of “successful” here means financial success, which, to be clear, I am defining as mere financial sustainability, not Scrooge McDuckian riches.)

Enter my third rail: writing and publishing books on the medium timescale — one on the order of months, not weeks or years. These books could be either fiction or nonfiction (since I want to write both), doesn’t matter. The point is that I have to get each one out in under a year. (And yes, I am currently working on something for this middle rail. I shall, of course, tell you, dear readers, all about it in more detail once I’m further along, but, rest assured, I am writing something that you will all want to purchase immediately upon publication, I’m sure. ^.~)

So there you go. For my metaphorical creativity car-cum-train, I’m tacking tracks. ^_^

Choo-choo!