If you were to lean in, very closely, you will hear a deadly rattle as a few manuscripts emerge through a final round of revisions and proof corrections. Feels like I’ve shaped a cyber-golem out of nanite-mud and clay, and we’re about to release it into the wilds.

As I emerge through this, though, I’ve had a thought about taking risks. See, working for someone else, the parameters or the sides of the box are usually determined by a number of factors ranging from approvals to the scope of the project already being defined. Freelancers don’t get to make a lot of calls; sometimes they do and other times they don’t. But when you pen original works, whether they be blog posts or novels, you determine where the sides of the box are.

The challenge with this, though, is that if you were to take every internet post, every forum thread, to heart — you would never write. Why would you? If everything you’d done was going to be ripped apart, shredded, presented as wholly inaccurate, and how dare you? (Sometimes, even before that person has even read or encountered or consumed, too.) Or, in the case of some work-for-hire writers, getting the same treatment for works you didn’t write and had nothing to do with? Now, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes, folks are very positive or say nothing at all. Freelancers can influence outlines and the like as well. But, in the case of many blogs and forums, articles are written to tap into your emotionally-charged centers so you wake up and pay attention. A technique which is manipulative, sure, and also finanically-beneficial to many sites. They get paid in *website visits*. Writers get paid per *word* sold.

But what the opinions? Should that affect how we shape the rawness of your your art? Mine? Should we avoid taking (what other people deem to be) risks just because people prefer works to be sanitized with soap and water?

No, and I am telling you this now, because it will come up later. This is a consequence of being connected so closely to one another. But taking creative risks is who we are as artists. We will take better chances if we understand what the rules are or play around with them to break them, but risks matter. If we don’t, stories and games and photos and sculptures and songs and everything else will stagnate. Without us, there will be no questions asked. There will be no arguments had. There will be no discussion. And we will be lost in a sea of opinions, doing what we think is right before we even try something new. Our art then, would become predictable and flat and repurposed. Safe.

I would rather get my hands dirty and take risks than live my writer’s life in fear. Half the time, *I* don’t feel that what I’m doing is risky. I just do what I do because I love it so. That doesn’t mean I won’t be smart about the choices I take in my career. I still have to worry about the business end of the equation.

Still, even I have had my “Come to Poe” moment. Do I trust myself? Yes. And to me, that’s all that matters. Because without that trust, then why would I bother taking any risk at all?

Mood: The Deepness
Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: Consuming them mightily.
Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: Got my steps in early, yo.
In My Ears: Doctor Who-ness.
Game Last Played: Last Night On Earth
Book Last Read: The Shadowmarch Series by Tad Williams (Re-Read)
Movie Last Viewed: The Last Stand
Latest Artistic Project: *Still* *still* *still* need to take pictures…
Latest Release: “The Button” We Are Dust anthology and for gaming, a fun Scion: Extras (Supplemental Yet Can Be Somewhat Useful On Occasion Scions)

.