It Begins With Writing

For me it starts with the writing. I’ve been writing poems, short stories, and journaling at times for many years. In April of 2007, I joined an online writing site. This is the first time any of my writing went up for public viewing. Prior to that, it was only viewed by family and close friends, if they saw it at all.

At this site, I became more confident in my writing abilities. It offered me a wide range of topics to write about. I liked looking at different categories, and picking out a topic I wanted to write about. In school I got to write about one topic, and one topic only. And that was whatever the teacher decided that topic would be for the whole class.

But writing at this site, was like having a teacher giving me a choice of different topics to write about. I like having choices! I don’t have to worry about grades, like I did in school or getting it done by a specific deadline. That of course generated my own ideas of other things I thought I could write about.

Now I keep a list of those ideas that I want to write or blog about as they come to me. As a writer, I need to, no actually I have to write, (or type) those ideas down, in a long growing list in my Word Processor. If I don’t type it, save it, when it first occurs to me, chances are good it won’t stay in my memory for very long. Then later I’ll be kicking myself, thinking I wanted to write about a particular topic and now I can’t remember what it was.

Besides I’d much rather assign the task of remembering the things I want to write about to my computer. It puts much less strain on my all already overcrowded tired brain. My computer does it’s job faithfully and well. It never complains that I’ve giving it too much information or that I’ve overloaded its computer brain. It just calmly and quietly stores it away. Of course my computer also expects me to remember what specific file I stored my list in. That’s hard enough for me to recall let alone all the different possible writing topics, the list contains.

Having that list of topics that peaked my interest or curiousity in the past, gives me something to fall back on, when my writing ideas run dry. Somedays it’s hard to find a topic on my own that I want to write about. It's a back up plan when my creative muse calls in sick, takes an unscheduled day off or goes on vacation.

I got constructive feedback from other writers at that site, who seemed to like the things I wrote about, and my style of writing. It’s great to hear from someone I don’t know at all, telling me they laughed till they cried, when they read something I wrote that I hoped others would view as humorous.

I know I intended my article to be funny when I wrote it. But just because I think it’s amusing, sarcastic, tongue in cheek, or a thousand other ways to describe my writing, doesn’t mean my readers will see it that way. Feedback like that validates me. It makes me feel less alone.

It confirms that at least one person out in that big old world seems to agree with me. We both thought my article was humorous. Great minds do indeed think alike!

The members and the staff in the forum of this site, have been very helpful in answering my questions. I’ve been away from the site for awhile, as my knitting addiction seriously kicked in. I looked at all my different color yarn balls, and had to pick up my knitting needles. Now that I’ve completed my patchwork sweater, it’s back to writing again.

I miss that site. I miss my good online writing buddies. The site is growing, expanding, and always adding new things for the writers there. And they listen to the writers! We're free to share our thoughts, our suggestions in the Members Forum. It's also a great place to go when we just need to vent. They often change things to suit the writers based on the feedback we give them in the Members Forum.

So before I begin on any kind of blogging journey, the first place I feel I absolutely have to promote is this online writing site. That’s where I finally got my courage up to let my writing be viewed by the public eye. That for me, is where my new journey into blogging, and Internet Marketing, truly begins!