Where Did Ten Years Go?

I updated the copyright date on my blog, as I do every year, and it hit me: I started this in 2009. A whopping ten years ago! It doesn't feel like that much time has zipped by, and yet I think of how much has happened since I started doing this. . .

I began blogging, reluctantly, because the accepted wisdom at the time was "you need a showcase for your writing". I was querying agents back then, and I grumbled that the manuscripts I was submitting should be a better showcase of what I could do with words, but I eventually succumbed.

(When I did have an agent, the first time she called me, she was looking at my blog/website while we chatted about my book. So the blog absolutely worked as designed.)

While I was waiting to hear back from agents, I discovered how much I enjoyed blogging. It was a great way to explore different topics racing around in my mind. I genuinely looked forward to the twice a week posts, and I put a lot of thought and effort into what I wanted to say. The routine was beneficial, too, forcing me to keep to a deadline, something that isn't easy for a pantser like me.

The blog also led to some other fun writing-related things. My first self-published short story, Summer Lovin', came about because of a writing prompt I put on my blog one day. A couple of other posts were "audition tapes" for when I applied to be a blogger at the Heroes & Heartbreakers blog.

I made a lot of friends, because way back when, there was time in the day to visit other writers' blogs, and comment on their posts, and they would do the same at mine. But that free time eventually disappeared. I quit visiting, and then quit blogging, devoting my limited writing time to trying to produce more books. The infrequent times I did blog, it was more of an announcement service, letting people know about my latest book release.

Ten years is such a milestone, though, and it feels like I should celebrate it with a return to blogging. I'm also in favor of this idea after a not-so-great 2018, which produced the least amount of writing in a decade, as well as a lot of moments where I seriously considered "retiring" from writing.

I'd forgotten how much blogging helped me sort out writing issues and worries about life in general. Sometimes those were intertwined. Words are how I process the puzzling aspects of the world. When I'm feeling anxious or out of sorts, words bring peace by lining up, one after the other, forming a coherent pattern that I can follow to a satisfying conclusion.

So my plan is to see if I can resurrect my blog this year. I don't know if I can devote the time and energy to it like I did in the past. It's easy to get caught up in that rosy-hued optimism that comes from starting a new year, adding fourteen thousand new projects to the agenda, while forgetting the regrets from the fourteen thousand that fell by the wayside in the year just gone by. I also have no illusions that anyone will have time to read my musings if I do manage to get them written.

But it's still something I want to try. (Just like I'm going to try, once again, to use a planner for my writing projects. This time it may actually work – I bought one that has no dates in it. LOL)

I'm not sure what my brain will want to explore. For now I'm interested in talking about how certain stories started—why they intrigued me, and how they morphed as I learned the lesson they were presenting writing-wise, and what I find entertaining about them.

It feels like a good way to jump into the next decade of writing.