It has been a long time since I blogged with any regularity. When I eventually did start to miss it after the better part of 18 months away, I kept trying to fit in with the accepted notion of a successful blogger in whatever niche struck me as exciting at the time. Pffft - I was an idiot. I could kick myself now for not working through the writer's block and disinterest - I'd be clocking up four years in keyboard servitude by now.
Writing feels like a best friend I haven't seen in years, someone who I might run into at a coffee shop, a stack of unread books under one arm, rushing out the door to her fourth appointment of the day. "Hi!" We might exclaim to one another. "Let's get together soon - I'll bring the wine and you bring the inspiration!" We'd exchange numbers, promising to call when life calms the heck down and we're ourselves again. And then ten minutes pass, another edition of daily minutiae crops up, and the conversation would be forgotten entirely. Eventually, we'd lose each other's numbers and move on, too busy to regret the effort we chose not to put into our relationship.
Writing was always my 'go to' when I'd had a bad day. Words flowed naturally, and sometimes excessively (in the early days I was known for my long, winding posts!) but they were there, non-judging. Words were magical, powerful things that could transport you anywhere. Who hasn't read a blog post or article and been moved to tears at one point? Who hasn't become enamored with a favourite blog, written by someone you've never met but somehow still feel a personal connection with, because the writing was so engaging, so hilarious, so skilled?
To be a writer, you need to read, and again, this is something I have virtually ignored for a good year now. Reading for pleasure gets pushed aside with every vomiting child or school sports carnival, over and over again, until you're quite sure you've forgotten how to do it altogether. Our local library / community centre has been busy being completely rebuilt from the ground up over the past twelve months, which has severely impacted my access to good reading material (libraries spoil every budget-conscious reader - I couldn't bring myself to pay retail for a book, and other libraries in the district were too inconvenient to get to). But - *squeee!* - at last update, the doors were due to open today. I miss books.
And as for blogging - I may have been the friend who disappeared for a while, but this week I've moved back to town :)
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