Martin Tanner II

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to the first blog post. Let me explain the What and the Why.

I am here because I want to be an author, to write books, mainly fiction, and I need a place to practice. I also need an outlet for random thoughts and musings. This blog will be like a Pensieve from Harry Potter. It will be a place to store my thoughts for later, a place to test my thoughts, a place to look at them from a different perspective, a place to learn, a place to fail, a place to grow.

I also need somewhere public to keep myself accountable, both as an author and a runner/as part of my fitness journey. I will be laying out my goals, my progress towards those goals, and, to keep myself honest, my failures.

So what are those goals?

• Author a book;
• Train to run a half marathon in 2022; and
• Lose weight for a wedding (not mine).

Big goals are great, but as my mother always says, “you can only eat an elephant one bite at a time.” So, what do I do … I need to break those elephantine goals down into manageable chunks. So, what are they? I do not quite know and that is where the blog comes in, it will be an opportunity to set and test these “bites” and measure my progress towards my goals. So here goes:

Author a Book, Bites for March and April, 2022:

1. Bite: Draft a whole chapter (3,000-5,000 words) introducing my main character;
2. Bite: Draft a whole chapter introducing the world;
3. Bite: Draft a rough timeline for the first book.
4. Bite: Draft a short story (3,000-5,000 words) for the blog.
5. Bite: blog about my progress.

Train to run a half marathon, Bites for March and April, 2022:

1. Bite: complete the NRC beginner running course (1 week).
2. Bite: start the NRC half marathon training plan and complete each week in a timely manner.
3. Bite: blog about my progress.

Lose weight for a wedding, Bites for March and April 2022:

1. Bite: HIIT two times per week.
2. Bite: at least one family walk (20 minutes minimum) per week.
3. Bite: blog about my progress.

One thing that I can guarantee is that I will fail, but that is ok! I do not want to fail, but I have given myself permission to fail and, by acknowledging the inevitability of failure, hope to be able to overcome those failures more rapidly. Why do I mention this? Well, I have struggled with anxiety and depression for several (many?) years and giving myself permission to fail has been one of the most important means by which I have begun to overcome and tackle these problems. I hope to share my thoughts on the fear of failure, how I have started to try to overcome it, and how giving myself permission to fail is actually making me more successful.

In order for this blog to work, I promise honesty–mostly for me, but also for you. I will tell the unvarnished truth. This blog will represent the good, the bad, and the indifferent.

You may have noticed the title to this blog and wondered what it is about? While I have promised honesty, I am not quite ready to give my real name or share more about my Who. What I can say is that I am not Martin Tanner. So who is he? He is a bit of an inside joke between me and my deceased father. More on that another time. But if anyone guesses (family and close family friends excluded) correctly I will enter you in a draw for a $100 gift card.

What about W.H. Oami? Well, I have taken that from a comic book. As a kid I was given some ancient Victor Book for Boys Annuals (rescued from a skip/dumpster by my dad when my grandmother was culling her possessions). One of my favorite characters was Alf Tupper “the Tough of the Track” (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alf_Tupper and below). He was a determined runner, and a kind man. One of his race opponents ran anonymously under the pseudonym W.H. Oami and it was up to Alf to figure out who he was. Well, now it is your turn!

Thank you for your time! I would love to hear from you! I will be back…