Tag Archives: #blogging

Blogging Buddies

 

I love to run. I would get out every day if my knees could handle the impact. When I hear about runners who have to force their happy butts out the door to get a couple of miles in, I’m perplexed. I’ve always wondered why people needed motivation to do something that gave me such a rush, such freedom, such joy. Some runners even recruit workout partners to get off the couch.

I didn’t get the buddy concept until I took up blogging.

I’m new to blogging but this was not my first attempt. I started a blog way, way back in Tobey!2002, when the whole idea of blogging still smelt as fresh and new as Toby McGuire in Spiderman (remember that ab reveal scene?).

I dolled it up with a picture and made a post or two. But soon I found I had left it fallow for a long time, and the longer I left it bare, the more embarrassing it became to post and with two pre-teens life got busy. The little blog drowned in the interweb stream of consciousness.

In 2011, I got super serious about my writing career and thought I had to have an online presence, so I spent a week learning Blogger, setting up all the pretty themes, and fonts, even came up with a cool name. I posted. I committed to doing it once a week, then once a week flew by, then I committed to once every two weeks. I watched those zip by as well. I allowed my fiction writing to eat up all of my free time. Years passed. No one cared if I posted anyway, there was no accountability.

Now, I’ve finished a few books and short stories. I’m submitting to publishers and considering some of my online options. But again I needed to get out of my writer’s hidey hole; I needed to connect.

I hit upon my answer when I discovered group blogging. Some of the pressure released. If I don’t have much to say, then I call on my blog mates to help. And if I don’t post there are people who depend on me, which raises the stakes of not performing. And in those long, lonely days when I believe no one reads, I know that at least my blog mates will be checking.

After joining a joint blog, it’s becoming more and more clear why people need workout partners. They empower you, hold you accountable, and share you success. All that power available, just by asking. This experience has lead me to be more open minded, and perhaps I will be exploring other joint ventures.

Anyone looking for a workout partner?

Have you ever thought of joining forces in order to accomplish more? Let me know about your experience, or just stop by to say hello.

For every comment you leave a superhero reveals his toned abs for public admiration.

To Blog or Not to Blog

A big, fat, hairy thank you to the friend of my heart and sister-in-ink, Ms. Tina Smith, for sharing her knowledge, her giant brain, her tremendous talent, and her super cool blog. What an intro she gave me—right? Here’s my first stab, read on if you will.

To Blog or not to Blog that is the question.

For the last four years the answer has been a abso-freakin-loutly, unqualified, no. What did I have to say? I am an unpublished (pre-published is the new PC-I hear) wannabe novelist. Who will want to read my post? Who will hear me when there are a myriad other voices shouting to the ether. Listen, I have something great to share. (And pictures of cats, can’t forget the pictures of cats.)

But time has a way letting facts marinate, of letting them wiggle deep inside your brainpan and creating an ear worm. Why not you? Why not now? Surely the hours of study, the submission process, the contest road, the writer’s groups, the Nanowrimos http://nanowrimo.org/ (both November and April thank you very much). Surely that would give me some literary street cred. Hell, I even placed in one of those contest.

And I’m scared, as scared of Dorothy facing the Wicked Witch with nothing but a pair of slippers. How the heck am I going to use my cleverness to be interesting and write well and share my personal life?

So here I am standing on a precipice of exposure. Will I be John the Baptist, wild-haired writerly evangelist that will herald the coming of something new and wondrous or will I be just another voice among the forgotten. The writers who sit on the side of a pothole riddled road and beg passerby’s for a review on Amazon.

I am hoping to share some of my life, my writing path to published, and some writing craft ideas. (Teaser: And maybe even cat pictures!)

I wade in the water, covered in beginner’s grime, and let the speeding water of the internet polish away my hard edges. And I hope, with your help, someday I will shine.

Leave a comment about something you’ve been scared of trying and how you’ve overcome it, or wish us luck, or just say hi.

Also here’s a cat picture.

cat computer