For the past 2 days I've been trying to do some story writing. And I've gotten nowhere. For whatever reason, I'm not comfortable with my story writing. I debated posting So Far So Good for the past week, but I figure what the hell. There's only one way to improve. And Sherry part 2, I REALLY don't like where it's at. I'm hoping to spend a lot of time tomorrow just writing and writing. We'll see if that happens though. I think my problem is that I'm self-conscious about my story writing, particularly my descriptive writing. Instead of setting the mood with the scenery and the surrounding environment, I tend to let my characters carry the burden throughout the story, simply because I don't feel confident enough in my descriptive writing to convey on paper what I have floating in my head. A certain friend says I have to learn to follow "conventions" because conventions is what story writing is all about. I think that may be what I don't feel comfortable with, I dunno. I know all art forms have their "conventions" but sometimes it's the things that come out of left field and hit you in the back of the head that make you say "what was THAT?" I like getting that response. The same friend also said that I tend to bring out the bigger picture with the little things. I agree with him on this part. But he says that you can't focus on the little things too much in stories as you do in poetry because in stories people want "go go go" as he says; they want plot. But those nuances, those small things, that's what I always enjoy in the stories. They're the shading of a painting, the last piece of the puzzle, etc. that complete the work. Anyway, I would greatly appreciate some feedback to this journal entry from those who have read my stories. Thanks alot. I'm gonna keep at it...

So I'm coming to the conclusion of day 3 of my life avec Deviant and I've realized something...it's ridiculously addictive! I'm obsessed! Wordslinger, damn you, you're worse than a crack dealer! I keep wanting to write more and post more, and read more. Just by reading other peoples' stuff you lose complete track of time. I guess it's good though. Since joining I've written 2 new pieces from scratch, which is great because that already ties my progress for the past year. Hopefully this keeps up. On the down side though, I need my sleep! Unlike regular people, I have to sleep during the day. But today I've chosen dA over the most basic of human needs! I should be sleeping right now in fact! I have to get my ass up for work in 2 hours! Crap!

It's 7:49 AM and I just got back from work. All night, all I kept thinking was, 'I really hope this DeviantArt thing can help me.' If you've ever worked the night shift, then you know how mentally, physically, and even emotionally draining it can be. For the past year I have pretty much lived in a bubble, not by choice of course; I've severed myself from my friends and family, I see my girlfriend once a week, and I generally have no contact or experiences with the world. I am stunting my own growth as an individual and it has murdered and raped all creativity out of me. Try going 3 days with 8 hours of sleep and see if you can even spit out a coherent sentence. The reason I'm writing all of this is that I hope this site can be my wake-up call. I want to shake off this numbing, brain-dead vegetative feeling and wake the hell up. I miss writing and creating SO much. I look at some of my old stuff, and I think 'How did I DO that?' and I look at something I write these days and I just shiver and want to ram my head against the wall just to make sure there's still some life and feeling up there. So I'm going to commit myself to this site and hope that I can use it as inspiration. This tightly knit community is exactly what I need. And so thank you to advance to everybody who reads my stuff, thank you very much to those who have already read some and left feedback and criticism, good or bad, and thank you to my good friend Wordslinger5 (plug, plug) for opening my eyes to this site. For now though, I bid you all good night, or good morning, whatever you want to call it, because I'm off to bed.