I have a handful of folks that read this blog on a fairly regular basis. I appreciate them. I’d feel a little bit funny if I thought that I was the only one that read what I write. I have been honing my writing skills lately. I’ve set a target length of five hundred words per post. I don’t always write that much. I’m either too tired to think or I’ve said everything that I have to say on the subject.
I’ve also made a point to give each post a careful once over to check for malformed sentences and other things that just don’t make sense. The spell checker does a pretty good job of verifying that the words that I use are in fact spelled like an existing word but it can’t tell me whether the words that I use actually mean.
I have been intending to write a post to put back for some night when I don’t have time or inspiration to write a post. I understand that editors of publications often do that with feature articles. I haven’t done it yet. There is something motivating about knowing that the deadline is approaching and I have to produce a blog post or else break my streak of how many days in a row I’ve written and posted one.
I also keep intending to make a list of potential topics for posts. I haven’t done it yet but I will get around to it eventually. All of these things help make it easier for me to focus on becoming a better writer. That is the goal of this blog.
Eventually I hope to write things for publication, short stories, novels, non-fiction articles and books, creative non-fiction, as I learned it is called from a local free lance editor. The more I write, the better I get at it.
I’ve started seeking out writers groups online. I joined Scribophile a while back but I am so strapped for time that I haven’t actually participated in the critique activities. They have a procedure where you earn points by reading and critiquing other people’s writing and then you can spend those points to post something of your own to have it critiqued.
I also joined a couple of writer’s support groups on Facebook. One is called The 10 Minute Novelist and specializes in collecting suggestion about how to fit writing opportunities into your otherwise already over-full schedule. I need to spend some time participating in that forum as well.
The other group that I joined on Facebook is a blogger support group. I hope they can help me improve the quality of this blog and maybe even suggest some ways to find more people that are interested in reading it.
I don’t expect to derive any income from this blog, at least no direct income. I don’t think much of selling advertising or reviewing products for hire. I might collect some of my posts into a book form to publish in a different form sometime. I’ll have to write enough posts that are actually worthy of such treatment before I need to worry about that.
Sweet dreams, don’t forget to tell the ones you love that you love them, and most important of all, be kind.