The curse of the update post

Remember blogging? I miss it.

Things were able to slow down then,. I also loved reading the blogs and websites (and still do!) of writers and always wanted to contribute (and tried!) myself.

I’ve been playing around with online writing for a bit (see: The Human Connection Project and Quarter Life Crisis), but I don’t know if I’ve found a platform I fully like or want to commit to besides my own website. I do want to figure out how to make a mailing list, but you can subscribe to this blog via email.

Most of my ideas I squirrel away in the hope I can get them published somehow. Others I just don’t have the time to fully write down, or I’m not ready to make them public. That’s okay. That’s part of the writing process. For every book you see published, there are many more drafts in a drawer.

I have tried to write this post many times. This version dates back to February. But my updates keep changing.

The thing about writing–for me at least–is that it is tied to my own personal development. There was a contrast between my fifth and sixth grade writing and what came after, because I grew more attuned to human emotions. I shifted away from writing fantasy to writing mostly contemporary.

Starting in 2021, my personal life went through a lot of changes and so did my writing. (And reading, as reflected in this blog…or lack of it.) I wanted to write essays. Memoir. Short fiction. Literary fiction. Poetry. Songs. Picture books. Back to YA and middle grade. Magical stories. Satire.

I wanted to go to journalism school and then I wanted an MFA in creative nonfiction and then I thought I might be a special education teacher and now I think I want to be a children’s/school librarian.

Every time I have something to announce, some new direction, things shift. At least in my writing and professional life. My personal one has mostly solidified.

But now that I’ve had a year’s worth of this, I feel like I have enough of a grasp of it to at least start documenting in some way. So, I want to properly blog about writing. That includes reading, without the pressure of book reviews.