Nine years ago, while my kids were still young and all at home, I finally graduated from college with a degree in Communications. Despite the huge effort to graduate, I never really did anything with the degree other than keep this blog alive. Sure my posts are random, unfocused, and without any end goal in sight, but I keep posting. I keep writing. I keep trying to make my degree mean something because I wanted that degree so badly. I was obsessed with completing a degree at the expense of my children.
In my recent past, I’ve had a writing coach. I’ve read books about writing. I get daily updates from writers’ websites. I’ve read countless books of fiction to mimic the style of a successful author I like but the only thing I’ve ever followed through on was a booklet I wrote about getting one’s home to sell faster and for more money (don’t look it up—I’m full of shame over that booklet).
The thing I need to accept is that I am not a successful writer so what this blog has turned out to be is a hobby, and I’m okay with that. It takes the pressure off. It lets me write poetry one day, deliver a rant the next, a review of a product or service the week after that, and then nothing the following week. Having writing as a hobby allows me to make mistakes, to try new things and fail, and to explore without fear. A hobby is something you enjoy doing and I enjoy the writing.
This year, I started a book from a writing prompt my writing coach gave me. Thus far, I think it’s at 20 or so pages. Recently, however, I had to put it aside for a bit because, although it’s fiction, like many writers I’ve taken a portion of reality and have woven it into the story. The story got a little too close to home, and I couldn’t deal with what was going on in real life and in the book at the same time. It was a double whammy. I’m hoping to return to the book shortly, though. Maybe the book will be a success once it’s finished and I can finally take the quotes off around author.
My degree hasn’t meant much in the grand scheme of things—it’s never added to the bank account or helped me with anything other than leading me to write for pleasure. For this reason, I’m grateful and content.
UPDATED: February 9, 2019
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Hi, nice to meet you !
Hi! I’m Michael from ShopAtHome.com. We would like to add your email addy to our master list for purposes
of inviting you to an Open-House at our#SaveAndSplurge party during BlogHer 11. Thanks very much!
I’ll gladly email it to you, Michael. Thank you!
Hello. My name is Matt and I was wondering if you would be interested in me doing a guest blog post for you? Currently I write for the SpareFoot blog and I think it would be fun to do something specifically for you. Let me know if you have any interest and we will go from there. Thanks!
Hello! I am also starting out as a blogger. In fact, I’ve been reading different people’s About sections to get a feel for what to include in mine! You sound a lot like me in terms of starting your writing later in life — not that you’re old (nor am I). I like the way you write — Keep up the good work. One of these days I will press my own send button to launch my blog. It’s scary!! : )
Just go for it, Ellen! It takes a while to gain a readership which is perfect for when you’re just starting out. Nobody’s reading what you wrote anyway (unless you’re famous or a published author), so you can get lots of practice until you do get some breathing bodies out there in cyberspace.
The key to getting readers is: consistency, having something interesting to read, and commenting on other people’s blogs (you’re already doing this!!).
Ellen, if not today, then when? Go ahead and press send. The first time is the scariest and it’s all downhill after that.
Thank you! I just launched it! It is sooo scary! I’ll get used to it! I’m finding that people reply in the facebook comments but not so much in the comment section of the post. Not sure how to change that,…. Maybe I’ll get it all, with time! : )
There are a couple ways to get people to provide comments. One is to become part of a group of writers who support one another. I belong to a group where we put up links to our blogs, and when the writers have time, they go visit and provide comments. Some of their blogs’ readers come visit your blog, so then you get more readers and more comments. Another way to get more people to comment is to make sure that you are tweeting your blog post multiple times on multiple days.
Hopefully those little tidbits might help you a little…??
Good to know! Thank you! : )