It’s a new year and I’m beginning to find my way in life. Yeah, it’s taken some serious time. I never wanted my blog to be about writing in general because let’s face it, I don’t have a degree in writing. I make grammatical errors on a regular basis. I don’t know my dangling modifiers from my bastard enumeration…wait, no I do know something! I do know my bastard enumeration, it’s faulty parallelism. It’s one of the things I actually know and use correctly approximately 88% of the time. And because I’m having a moment of clear honesty, that percentage is just pulled out of thin air. Still, I believe my parallelism is used correctly most of the time.
For years I’ve been searching for what I want my blog to represent. I’ve dipped my toe in many pools and alternately frozen and burned a few little piggies in the process. Nothing seemed right, but I gave it a go. A wise teacher taught me Fail Better. And I have.
There were times I was excited about a blog post and assumed it was the niche I was going to write about. But then I’d go MIA and my blog would send S.Y.B. (save your blog) signals to pull me back. I had avoided it because I had nothing more to say on the topic that seemed so right at that moment.
So I’ve spent some time working through ideas. I’ve asked myself about post ideas, I’ve piddled around the internet looking for what’s missing (in case you’re wondering, nothing’s missing, all that’s left is your own take, your own perspective). I’ve begun a few posts and promptly dismissed them.
Then I sat down and took stock. What do I really love? Life. I thoroughly enjoy life. Don’t get me wrong, many times I’ve been sucked in deep pits of mire that have taken weeks and months to slog through, but I still believe in the end, life is good. Without the muck we can’t appreciate the good stuff. And by good stuff, I mean the simple things like a walk with my boys, getting up town without getting one red-light (those days I should buy lottery tickets).
What else do I like? Reading. I love reading. I love falling into a book and coming out of it and having to adjust to reality. I love thrillers, mysteries, true crime, tear-jerkers, historical fiction, horror, some YA, and some non-fiction. And I love a kick-ass Heroine. However, I like them to be slightly flawed. Which reminds me I really love my KickAss Cheerleader, I don’t think I’ll bury her away completely, maybe once a quarter I’ll bring her out to play on the blog. I appreciate her no-holds-barred honest insight.
What else do I love? Encouraging others. Nothing grates my nerves more than hearing someone say they aren’t good enough, they don’t know, they don’t have xyz. Probably the number one reason I hate that is because I’ve been there and felt that way. I hated myself then. Feeling weak really burns my britches. So I like to encourage others. But don’t mistake my encouragement for pity. If you aren’t willing to do some work to help yourself I’m kind of snotty… yes, mainly because I had to get snotty with myself to get my butt on the right track.
What else do I love? Learning. I was the child that looked forward to the first day of school every single year. Now that love may not have continued after the first two weeks, but I always looked forward to the next year.
After all those questions I realized what I believe is the right path for my blog. It encompasses reading, learning, and a little bit of encouragement.
Stay tuned because on February 2nd, 2017 I’ll reveal where the blog is going from here, content-wise. In the meantime I’d love to know your thoughts on the new look. I’m super excited. I hope the excitement stays. And if you sense a little slacking off or a need that I haven’t seen, please, please, please, tell me. I can’t fix what I don’t see.