Whenever I sit down to read long-form posts & articles about writing, I’m not really on the lookout for more tools of the trade. I already have a healthy collection of online how-to articles & videos, numerous ebooks & books, & plenty of emails related to the independent author adventure.

Instead, reading a long-form post is an opportunity for me to explore a topic along the lines of long-read journalism & podcasts about news events & whatnot. For some reason, they all remind me of free-flowing conversations on meandering walks & hikes with close friends.

However, my interest in writing my own long-form posts doesn’t come from a desire to give current & potential readers a chance to get to know me or for me to chronicle my author journey in order to help others with this or that turn along the sometimes challenging writer’s road.

Honestly, I’ve never been one to vie for center stage or be drawn to a lectern. I basically like to sit with my joys & struggles related to writing fiction in a sort of memoir fashion by letting an idea simmer, then blabbing through my fingertips on one keyboard or another, scribbling on a writing tablet, proofreading on my phone, & posting sporadically.

I know the common trend is to share shorter, more frequent blog posts to improve exposure and so on, but that doesn’t work so well in my case—believe me, I’ve tried.

I finally accepted that my heart wasn’t in it the way it is with journaling & writing fiction, so I started exploring & sharing some of my experiences along the way toward becoming a self-published author of fiction in a casual, personal letter fashion.

For example, I titled my previous offering “Deep Dive II.” The entire post is basically a shout-out to self-deprecating humor as a way of coping with a hobby/obsession that others frequently view in less than positive terms. In fact, one of those close friends I mentioned hiking with above once said something to me along the lines of, “I don’t need to burn in the lower bowels of hell as punishment for any of my wrongdoings. Just stick me in a stuffy room with one tiny window on a perpetually beautiful spring day with a typewriter, a writing tablet, & a laptop, then shove a writing burr up my ass like you have up yours. That’d be punishment enough.”

So, kudos to you for actually reading this far. I hereby promote you to the top level of long-post readers—whatever that means—& invite you to subscribe to my newsletter.

If you skipped down to this part in order to see what this crazy writer is trying to eventually get to, no worries, you’re still welcome to check out the other parts of my website & ignore my ramblings—& sign up for my newsletter, of course.

Keep you posted.

Drew

Note: I use the term long-form posts since the common understanding of long read seems to be in the range of 2000-6000 words as the excellent nonfiction site Longreads adheres to (most of my humble offerings clock in around 300-500).

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Please consider checking out Lee Hall’s excellent video review, especially the first book he includes on his short list of memorable indie reads—uh-huh, that would be Pearl Fields and the Oregon Meltdown.