Yay! I’m posting.

I try to learn from the experience of others. I’ve noticed that many people (perhaps most?) write a blog just the way most people journal. They start off with a few entries, fully planning and expecting this to be an ongoing thing. Then they disappear for a long time. They come back, apologetic and promising to get back on track. Usually that is the last post / journal entry. The fact that it’s out there for everyone to read, unlike the dusty journal in your bedroom, doesn’t seem to help. And the sad, neglected blog continues on like a discarded rocket part floating through space.

So I’m back after a long absence, but will bite my tongue before apologizing or promising anything. The following is not an excuse, as I am not apologizing, but I guess it’s blog-vent.

I tried starting a new blog on my webpage and I hated it. It was not user-friendly. I had enough trouble with discipline and writer’s block already, but throw in a really good excuse like “I can’t remember the two or three passwords necessary to access the new blog I can’t figure out how to use” and you’re set to put the flowers on its little bloggy grave.

Meanwhile, I had the occasional blog-worthy idea, but nothing seemed significant enough to go through the above mentioned hassle. So I fell into another old trap: needing everything to be perfect and awesome before it’s worth writing about.

In July I did “Camp NaNoWriMo” (see www.campnanowrimo.org or www.nanowrimo.org for info on this wordpile craziness), and I started to learn that I can push myself to write even when I have no idea what to write and, perhaps more importantly, that the world doesn’t end if what I write is no good. In fact, for the first couple weeks I kept a toy skunk by my laptop to remind me to keep writing even if what I come up with is stinky.

Keep going….keep going…keep going. No matter how perfect you think things ought to be, it’s always better to show up and create something than to keep the hope of perfection and have nothing to show for it.