Drawing Blanks

For a few days now I’ve been thinking of a couple things: rewriting the ending of Opus in order to make it more suspenseful, reviewing the edits on Limbus with the possibility of deleting one other short section which really isn’t necessary, possibly starting edits on a few of my other stories, and finally looking at drawing the cover of my series of nine books named Shadow Gods. Now I’m sure that’s a lot to digest and let me assure everyone all of it needs to get done, but it’s the last one which I might be the most motivated to complete. But am I an artist when I barely consider myself a writer.

Writing to me is a hobby with my imagination creating stories I believe should be told. These stories I put into print consist of thousands of words, but does that make me a writer? Now that I’ve one of these stories published, it makes me an author, but is that enough to consider what I do more than a hobby. After all, these stories are not poetic or insightful or present any meaning beyond the written word. They are thoughts expanded into novels. The only redeeming value they represent is the fact each one of them contains a piece of soul. They are a part of me revealed which is enough to make me cringe at time (especially if A Romance Novel makes it to the stand).

Art, however, is different. If I barely consider myself a writer, would my dabbling with pen and paper, my chicken scratches of arches and shading, be considered of any more value? I would like to say anyone’s opinion beyond my own doesn’t matter, but it would be a lie just like with my writing. I take my writing personal and though I’ve tried to understand and accept criticism, it’s still hard for me. Ignoring that, I do have a background in drawing and drafting. I’ve dabbled at times with the cover of Shadow Gods before. This time, however, I want to make my vision take a finished form. I want my drawing to become the symbol on every one of the nine books. I want it to have significance. Can I do that? I don’t know, but I honestly want to give it a try.

My only request is for you not to laugh to hard at what I produce.