What’s my why?
Image by Tim Martin
Hello World! My name is Tim, and I am a writer and illustrator based in Oxford, UK.
Now, as I have said, I am a writer and an illustrator, I must be, but I am new to this writing lark. I have been creating images for years, but this is the first time I have put them out there for public consumption.
You may be wondering why I am starting this blog now. I have asked myself the same question and concluded I was provoked. Yes, people, provoked … by a TED talk and two articles I read.
What’s it all about?
The Ted Talk was by Simon Sinek, where he advised Start with Why. Why are you doing this? What reason or reasons do you have? Knowing Why will lead you to the What and the How, rather than doing things and not knowing why or for what purpose.
I had to stop and think about the question for a while. I asked myself, who was I and who—now I am middle-aged—have I become? Then I followed up with a question about outside work: what did it, and what does it mean to be me? We could all ask ourselves the same questions, as could everyone who came before and those yet to come.
This line of thought led me to an article about how many people have existed. I discovered an estimated 105 billion people have walked on earth. Who were they? What did they do in life? Who remembers them? We are like pebbles on a beach: an indistinguishable mass, so how do they differ from me? Well, some of them are famous.
I read a couple of people carried out a study to determine the most significant people who have lived. They used several metrics to create an enormous database of people. The result of their study showed the top ten most significant people ever being:
Jesus
Napoleon
William Shakespeare
Muhammad
Abraham Lincoln
George Washington
Adolf Hitler
Aristotle
Alexander the Great
Thomas Jefferson
Other studies have focussed on the relative fame of people. The List Challenges website had a different view of the top ten. There are matches to the other study, but they list:
Jesus Christ
Adolf Hitler
Marilyn Monroe
Donald Trump
Mao
Albert Einstein
Cleopatra
Michael Jackson
Charlie Chaplin
Abraham Lincoln
This top-ten listing equates to 0.0000000952% of the 105 billion people. If we wracked our brains and listed one thousand famous people, this would equate to 0.00000952%. A tiny amount.
Where would I rank on their list? I wouldn’t, as I haven’t done anything fame-worthy … Yet.
I worked out who I am. I know what I have done, but when I am gone, who else would know who I was and what I did while I was here?
So that’s it. I am not seeking fame. I want to leave something of me behind to prove I existed. Oh, and have fun along the way.
But what about the blog?
This blog is about sharing my development from a new writer to a self-published author.
You’ll hear about my processes, inspirations, struggles, and, with luck, a published book or two.
I will tell you about my creative processes in both writing and illustration. I will share the tools and techniques I use, and I will provide the odd freebie. You should know I haven’t invented these freebies, but I have tweaked them for my purposes. As they have helped me, they may be helpful to you, too. On top of this, I like to ramble on about things that I find interesting or amusing. You will also get a smattering of musings of this nature. This will, I hope, give you a sense of my writing style before my book or books are self-published.
Is that it?
That’s it. A blog about my desire to become a published author. It’s about drawing pictures for fun and sharing details of the processes. It will be part of my little slice of evidence that proves I existed. My why.
If you want to follow along, why not sign up for my newsletter, where I will summarise what I have learned or done. I’ll produce something once per month, and I promise I won’t spam your mailbox.
If you fancy reaching out, why not contact me.