Some of you may have seen me tweeting this weekend about something called the 48 Hour Magazine (@48hrmag).  Basically, some people involved in media, including writers for Wired magazine, came up with the idea to make a magazine in 48 hours.  They came up with a theme, which they announced on Friday, and then invited the whole world to join in and submit something along the lines of that theme.  They gave everyone 24 hours to create and submit something, then they selected the submissions they liked and made a magazine out of them.  It has currently been sent off to MagCloud and is awaiting availability for purchase on their site.

Unfortunately, my submission didn’t make the cut, but I’m still quite proud of my work on it.  I enjoy being creative, but often feel like I just can’t seem to make enough to, well, create.  Honestly, my full-time job plus school keeps me so busy it’s hard to even fit in as much of a social life as I’d like, let alone have time for much else.  But this opportunity came at the perfect time.  This weekend I was in between semesters and the fact that I had my theme and was pressed to get something done quickly worked out just right for me.  I came up with an idea and went with it.

The theme announced on Friday for “issue zero” of 48 Hr Mag was, appropriately enough, “hustle”.  Now, while this was chosen in part due to the nature of the magazine and how they had to “hustle” to get it done in just 48 hours, your take on it in the form of a submission could be any meaning of the word, however you chose to interpret it, from hurrying, to swindling, to even the dance called the Hustle.  The idea that popped into my head was the thought of the big event in Indy this weekend – the 500 Festival Mini Marathon.  What better personification of hustling (in the hurrying sense of the word, at least) could there be?  So, I dragged my butt out of bed at 5 am on Saturday morning to make it downtown, find a parking spot, and be there at the starting line of the Mini when it began.  It was a fun experience, I enjoyed it, and I got some great pictures for my submission.

I love this whole idea of coming up with a theme and getting people to quickly crank out something creative around it.  Maybe I’ll see what I can do with it on my own as well.  In the meantime, here’s my submission from this weekend.  It was eight photos, in this order, with no captions, but including the following descriptive text:

Ladies & Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

Each year in Indianapolis, the month of May ushers in a need for speed.  For some, this need is met by the rev of an engine.  But another familiar sound is that of sneakers hitting the pavement.  The first weekend in May, somewhere around 35,000 participants gather for the Indianapolis 500 Festival Mini Marathon.  The famous words, “Start your engines!” kick off not only our beloved Indy 500, but also the infamous 13.1-mile half marathon as runners take off to see how quickly they can hustle.

Besides being a social event and a chance for good conversation and connection with people, Mo*Con also made me think. Standing outside of the building on Saturday of the event, I found myself in a conversation with Kelli Dunlap. The panel happening at the time was about the writing business, and I had decided to skip it and use the time to head home to let my dog out and go get my copy of Orgy of Souls (to be signed by Maurice and Wrath). Upon telling Kelli this, she asked me, “are you a writer?” I wasn’t sure what to say… I mean, at this point the whole convention had made me actually consider writing more. But how do I answer that question?

I blog. I journal. I do like to write. And I never seem to have trouble having the words flow pretty freely. And it is something I enjoy. But had I ever tried to get a story published? Not even close. So I didn’t know what to say. Kelli termed me a “hobby writer” and told me that that was perfectly okay and not to let anyone tell me any different. She’s right, at this point. But even my “hobby writing” hasn’t been much of a focus lately. But maybe it should be.

One thing I took away from Mo*Con was the feeling that I’m lacking something. I’ve heard that to be happy in life, you need a good balance of all your “life areas”. One of those life areas is spirituality. And to me right now – I believe that connection and creativity are a big part of what spirituality is in my life… two things that I found in abundance at Mo*Con. As far as creativity goes – I’m not much of an artist, but I DO like to write.

So I’ve decided. In an effort to increase creativity and gain some spiritual balance in my life, I’m going to write more. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, and no publishing of stories will be sought after any time soon. Heck, I don’t even know if stories will be written. But something will be. Right now, my focus is just doing it. It’s easy to get caught up in the things in life that it feels like have to be done, and to not do the things that really are necessary for fulfillment that just don’t seem as pressing. But I need the creative outlet. I need the channel for paying more attention to the world around me and the wonder it contains. So be it blog post, journal entry, or whatever may flow out… write I will.

I guess I am a writer.