Happy New Year! Starting out the year right, I want to thank you for taking the time to check in here on my very humble blog, and especially if you’ve subscribed and allowed me to join the cascade of reading material that fills your inbox. Seriously, thank you.
In the past, I’ve found there to be a a problem with personal blogs, and that was that every time I found one I liked, I would read it for a while, becoming more involved in the author’s daily life, the family problems, goals, setbacks, and I’d end up getting a little annoyed. Familiarity would eventually breed contempt, but mainly because it felt so one-sided. I knew so much about her (the blogs I read are almost always written by women. I don’t know why), but she knew absolutely nothing about me. And pretty soon I’d stop reading.
So, when I decided to try writing a blog, I knew I wanted to make sure that my readers didn’t feel this way. I wanted to avoid the trap of just unloading my everyday life on you, first of all because you already have a life, why would you want mine, and second, because I want you to keep reading.
To state the obvious, there is a whole lot I don’t know about blogging. For some reason I thought I could learn by doing, which I still believe is the best and only way to become a better writer, but the blog thing is different. You’re publishing yourself. You’re saying, “Here. I made this. I worked on it and I hope you like it.” It’s scary, you guys!
When I first started, several friends told me how much they admired my courage. I didn’t exactly get it, but now I do. It’s not the risk of writing about my childhood or high school crushes, it’s the risk of saying that this is the best I have to offer. I write and then rewrite. I think about it and, a day or two later, look it over again. I don’t just press “publish.” My finger hovers there a minute while I think about the grammar and spelling errors, the rambling lack of structure, the cliches and the corny endings. Don’t get me started on the formatting bugs and glitchy links, it’s all there. It feels like the dream where you are grocery shopping naked (what, you don’t have that one?). 
Everyone will now see my cellulite, cesarian scar and the fact that I never went to college.
Yeah, that last one’s a bitch.
Anyhoo… Back to 2016 and a new way of doing things! In this version, I’m going to give myself permission to find out what this blog wants to be. I’m never going to find out by only writing posts that I think will appeal to a lot of people. I hope that, if you’ve read this far, then maybe you’re a little interested in the creative process and will want to read more. I will write more consistently, which means that, even though I will do my best, I will not fret over each post. I probably won’t rewrite. I’m shipping, as Seth Godin says, and I’m really excited about finding out what that’s like. I hope I’ll surprise myself. I also hope I’ll surprise you.
So, thanks again. And here’s to a year of learning as we go, scars and all.
bouquet of ballpoints 