Wolfy’s 2015: Writing Wonderfulness

Tags

blog, blogger, blogging, community, i mean it guys, no seriously thank you, thank you, through wolfy's eyes, writing

Yesterday I touched on the gaming facet of my life.  Today, I’ll be going on about my writing facet–a part of my existence that I, frankly, wasn’t really sure was going to pan out.

See, I’m not sure I consider myself a writer per se.  I’m even stunned to be doing what I’m doing now with this blog here.  I know my metrics and viewership isn’t exactly a barn-burner, but the idea that even that many people read my stuff is honestly a staggering thing.

These bars are filled.  With people.  Looking at derpy ‘ol ME.

I’m not trying to sound defeatist or anything, but I’d be lying if I also didn’t admit to some self-inflicted doubt.  Doubt is a bitch like that, y’see…it whispers horrible lies in to your head like a snake-voiced mantra until you’re convinced of those lies as being a truth.  So even the idea of starting a blog was petrifying.

Honestly, none of this would have been possible were it not for the folks at Massively.

All I was doing on any regular basis before was commenting frequently on the Massively website.  Hardly a remarkable writing career…but it was my opinion and my feelings and my attempts at humor hitting a page and making an impact.  Likes on my comments made me smile.  Conversations made me engaged.  Arguments sprang up that challenged my thinking and made me consider my point of personal view along with another’s.  And then, the Newbie Blogger Initiative was brought to my attention by Syp…and without any hint of irony I can tell you that my life changed.

Altering my fate with one wiggly dragon icon.

And so it began in late 2014, right through random, meandering thoughts about games, MMO’s, life, personal noise and things that affected my gaming universe.  The blog grew not only in to a hobby, but a life.  It steered me to amazing writers.  It showed me points of view and content that I adored.  It gave me a reason to learn how to use an RSS feed.

Best of all, though, it showed me a community.

That community absolutely exploded for me in the month of August as I took the plunge and threw myself in to the grinder of the Blaugust Challenge.  Belghast had cast the gauntlet to the blogging world: a post a day, every day, for the entire month of August.

I thought I was crazy.  But I also thought that it would be a litmus test.  The thing that would either see this blogging thing as a part of my life or a mere house of cards.

“Thirty One Days of Madness” is appropriate as HELL.

Not only did I defeat the challenge, but I felt myself coming more in to my own.  I found my ideas flowing more freely.  I found my writing becoming more fluid and natural.  It was less squeezing a slight cut and more like opening a vein and letting it flow out of me on to the page without even a thought.  And it brought me so many wonderful people in to my sphere of knowledge.  People who are better than me.  Bigger than me.  More focused than me.

But people who are supportive.  Who embrace and not lord over me.  Bloggers are, without question–without peer–the single most supportive digital community I have ever witnessed.

And then, just when I thought the peak was hit, I was allowed to do freelance writing for MMOGames.com  Me.  My lowly little self, allowed to work with and alongside an outstanding website and some stupendously talented and disgustingly wonderful writers.

I am still, to this very day, in awe of this reality.

Essentially, my writing life in 2015 is a string of beautiful logos.

As I move in to 2016, I am beyond blessed for the chance to write for you all, regardless of how small or how large the audience is.  Every single one of my readers or Twitter followers or anyone who I engage with at both MMOGames and at Massively’s comments…you’re the reason.

I subtitled this blog as “One gamer’s view of the forest and the trees”.  But thanks to all that has happened in 2015, I can also count the stars as well.  And even though the words fall obscenely short of the gratitude I feel, all I can say to all these people is…

….Thank you.

Tomorrow, I’ll be going on about my personal life in 2015.  It will be boring, but I’ll try to make it worth your time.