This will be my 10th post and it is going to be self-indulgent after all this is a journey about me. Have I learned anything from any of this? I’ve made a few observations. I’m petty sure I was taught this in high school but it only hit home once I started this blog, the ending is always somewhere in the beginning. Writing, like everything else takes on a life on its own. All I can really do is have an idea and start typing, it doesn’t take long before the story heads off in its own direction. I can try and nudge it one way or another but usually I end up having to change words around to accomodate the new direction. If and when I try to nudge it back to my orignal intent the words feel wrong. An easy example of this can be clearly seen (from my perspective) in Magical moments. The entire post was supposed to be comedic in nature and focus around the raccoons climbing up my wife’s leg. Instead that theme turned into one line. While I hope folks found the entry funny the point turned into something quite insightful, I got as far the raccoon climbing my wife’s leg and from there the story sat in my draft file for a week and a half without an ending. Eventually I looked back at the beginning and discovered that the moment that the wildlife people live for wasn’t just the release of animal it was the success of a process. I was able to add a little of the reality or at least the reality my wife and I go through and some of the elements that make it special. So the story took on its own life and the ending which had eluded me was right there at the beginning.
The person who inspired me to start a blog, or at least who managed to get me off my arse and start writing manages to post 3 times a week Mommy said what? which is amazing seeing as she has the boy, the girl, the husband, the job and a life. My goal is twice a week with the hope of three times. Each time I bring a post to completion I panic, while I have plenty to draw from I go blank. I don’t want to fall into a rut of similar posts. I refuse to rant and plenty of my posts turn into rants. I file them away because with some thought I can turn them around. It takes a day or so to come up with a post. Then it takes an hour or so to get it to the screen then there is the countless times I go through it over and over again unfortunately I can’t do that in one sitting. I end up going over it several times throughout the day and then some. Sure enough I manage to make my self-imposed deadline without much sacrifice. When I finally publish the post I am happy with it. Obviously there is always room for improvement, but that is what the next post is for.
I am quite surprised by the number of people who follow my blog and even more surprised by who some of them are. My biggest worry in starting this is who is going to read it? But does it matter? It must I check on my stats every time I turn on the computer. It is always a little ego boosts. On top of that there is a number of people who get the blog sent to them by email I’m not sure if WordPress counts that as a hit or not. But I know they are there even if they don’t comment on the page itself. I really am thankful for my readers and hope you continue to read and enjoy.
PanningForGold 