Laying the foundation...

     Ok, so I'm a 20 year old working full time in a little kiosk in a mall no one in Ottawa seems to know exists. I average around 48 hours/week and as you can imagine, without a ton of traffic coming through the mall, it gets pretty boring sitting around for 8-9 hours a day. To be honest, I actually do all my blogging while at work. The laptop my girlfriend and I share has decided to go to that happy place in the sky and so I am left with no computer and very little cash for a new one. Luckily, I do have access to the internet here in the "fishbowl" so I will be able to stay sane.
    
     I'm actually an old fashioned guy, in the sense that I prefer older means of doing things. I'm not a fan of social networking sites and the like, but it looks as though I may have to look at jumping on the band wagon if I really want to get this stuff noticed. It has been a few days since I started this blog and I have yet to receive any attention from the public but obviously I wasn't expecting any moths to come to the flame so early in the life of my blog. I am also completely new to the idea of "blogging" and probably have the most basic blog one could have so I'm sure that doesn't help the traffic flow...I'll get the hang of it in time, I'm sure.

     So whoever eventually finds their way to my page should know that I won't blog unless I have some sort of update to give. Personally, I'm not a fan of reading what "Cindy" had for lunch last week (hence the dislike of social networking). What's that imaginary readers? You want to know what the update is? Well sure I'd be glad to tell you. It's nothing HUGE but it's pretty exciting to me nevertheless. I have been contacting a lot of people to try and get some writing experience, because no one wants to pay money for a young guy with little proffesional experience, and I seem to have snagged a few bites on the line. Last week I received a reply from the Editor-In-Cheif at http://www.superherohype.com/ basically stating that they didn't currently have any freelance writing assignments but when they did they would give me a shot.

     Now while I believe the chance of that happening is probably pretty slim, I also received a reply from the creator of http://www.onemorelevel.com/ (who also created http://www.addictinggames.com/, which he then sold to MTV) and his message was as follows:

Thanks Travis, it's always good to hear from a longtime visitor to my site.

I'm actually redisigning OneMoreLevel from the ground up and adding a focus on gaming news/reviews/humor in a blog format in addition to the flash games. I'd be happy to let you write a few articles on a trial basis and see where it goes from there. No set date on the launch, but it's looking like February. I'll shoot you an e-mail then, or feel free to contact me again once the new site goes live. =)

~Ira Willey

     ...So I was pretty happy about that one. I have wrote for a site before (story for another time) but this is a widely popular site with tons of traffic where people will actually see my writing and make their way over here. It's a small step to some but it's a huge leap in the right direction to me. Everyone has to start somewhere and maybe this is my starting. Regardless, I am still asking all over and all you imaginary readers, make sure to bring you're imaginary family and friends over to read The Struggling Writer!

Where to begin...?

     Hi, my name's Travis and I'm a writer...I think. It's kind of hard to really say what a writer really is. I've spent way too much time thinking about it. Is a writer someone who has achieved success in the filed of writing? If so, that leaves a pretty wide spectrum for 2 reasons:
     1) "Writer" isn't exactly a job, it's more of a category of jobs. There's about 20 different writing jobs that I can think of just off the top of my head.
     2) "Success" is another translucid word who's definition begs to be disected.

     After years of thought I have decided to believe that a "writer" is simply someone who writes; everything else is just too complicated. If you want to write, then write! It doesn't matter if you're young, old, rich or poor. That's the thing I love the most about writing. Absolutely no one can stop you from doing it. You don't need permission to be doing what you love and you have the freedom to say whatever you want. I can use this blog to open up my mind and just get all the thoughts out of my head and into text for whoever wants to see, but that's not the main reason I'm starting this blog.

     I decided to start a blog today because I felt that the internet needed it. I don't mean to sound conceeded or overconvident but I know there are thousands of people like myself out there in the "world wide web" who can relate on so many levels. We, the struggling writers of the world, need each other to lean on and share our thoughts with. It's so easy to fall off the road to achieving each writers own individual ideal of what "success" is but I believe that together we can all help each other with encouragement, critisism and advice.

     This is my life as a struggling writer - an average joe trying to get my words out. I hope you will all come along for the ride and see where this thing goes. It will have its ups and it will have its many, many downs but if there's anyone out there willing to listen, I'll be here willing to tell everything I have to tell and listen right back...