Onward, Blogging Fool

Today (as I write) is April Fools’ Day.  It is also an important milestone for our intrepid blogger, as I have just crossed the one-fourth threshold of this writing enterprise.  With ninety-two posts in the can, I have just 274 remaining--including this one.  I thought this would be a good time to reflect on the good, the bad, and the ugly of my blogging year so far.

First the good.  In my wildest dreams, I could not have anticipated the support I have received from friends around the world.  Most people are stealth readers, following loyally from the privacy of their homes and offices, not always drawing attention to the fact that they are engaged.  But when blogs are read in the forest and no one makes a sound, I still know that you all are reading, as the Blogger ticker reminds me that you are there.  Then, every once in a while, I receive a comment from a new constituency—a “like,” a “share,” or an email message from someone who I was unaware had been following along.  It is immensely gratifying to discover that I have touched a nerve or someone’s heart with my little stories.  The smallest acknowledgement is a boon to an aspiring writer.  I love hearing that my stories are stimulating discussions, or inspiring laughter, or moving you to tears.  The human experience is a rich tapestry; we are woven together by the smallest of threads.  And for someone like me, who has long felt that I was living inside a television sitcom, this is helping me to find some relevance and harmony in my own existence.

Now the bad.  What the heck was I thinking?  Before embarking on this self-imposed challenge, I considered the pros and cons for approximately six and a half minutes.  Clearly, this was a rash decision.  I have come to realize that most bloggers write, at most, once or twice a week.  Had I announced on New Year’s Day that I was going to post once a week for an entire year, it would have sounded like a commendable challenge.  No one would have thought me slothful for choosing a realistic target.   As it turns out, since the first of the year I have spent no less than twenty days on the road visiting my kids at college, or accompanying my husband on business trips.  Each blog has to be planned and executed, regardless of the other activities that cloud my life.  I am writing on planes, adding notes on potential topics over romantic dinners, waking up in the middle of the night to rewrite sections before they go live.   In fact, this blog is being written from a hotel lobby at Pebble Beach where, if you read my blog (see 3/29, The Golf War), you understand that this activity is far more enjoyable to me than the reason most people choose to visit here.  That daily deadline is a harsh taskmaster, but it is slowly become the pulse that drives my life forward.  And that is what this is all about.  A dear friend from college, who is a Wall Street warrior-turned-best-selling-author, told me that the key to being a writer is to write every day.  It takes a lot of discipline to be your own boss in the production of an intangible thing.  This structure creates accountability.  I feel your eyes bearing down upon me, keeping me productive. 

And the ugly.  Even Hemingway couldn’t be Hemingway every day.  When I am fortunate enough to have a backlog of blogs posted out into the future, I also have the luxury to proofread and wordsmith through several iterations.  Other days, not so much.  I like to refine my stories until I am satisfied, but sometimes my opportunity to let them “marinate” expires.  In the end, I do everything to make sure there is a post each day and that it is the best I can do under the circumstances.  Like life, those circumstances change wildly from day to day.  I hope my readers understand that those are the limitations of this medium. 

On the other hand, after writing 110,297 words I now realize that I have at least two books in me.  This process is going a long way toward helping my fictional ideas take shape.  I am looking forward to applying this discipline to those projects once this year has concluded successfully.  Knock wood.  Poo poo poo.

Some final thoughts.  I have learned a lot from this experience.  Here are some of those lessons:

There is a vast difference between telling stories and story-telling.
Honesty is easy to recognize but harder to realize.
There will always be dissenters and deniers; they are not my audience.
The definition of friendship is a person who reads what you write every day.
A year lived day by day is well spent; a year spent writing day by day is better in retrospect.

Tomorrow's blog:  A Nice Epidemic