“Don’t be ‘a writer’, be writing.” ~William Faulkner

Today marks one year since I started a blog. “Happy Blogday!” My husband said when I told him, although we both agreed that “blogaversary” sounds better. In any event,  this is my 58th post, so I’m averaging about one a week. That’s a lot of words, and I’ve yet to run out of them. Actually, it has only wet my appetite to write more. It’s almost like other good-for-you good habits like exercise and eating right; they are both hard to start, but once you do, it almost becomes an addiction.

“To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself. ” ~Anne Rice

I had five viewers on my first post, a year ago. Two of which, were my views I think. Of the other three, I think one was my husband, one was my sister, and one was my niece, all of the members of this OG trio have been tireless cheerleaders this past year. My last post by comparison, has had 498 views so far. My blog has 109 followers on Facebook now, I have 115 e-mail followers, and I’ve had views from people in 39 countries, some of them quite surprising (hello, Kazakhstan and Guyana!). This is really nothing in comparison to some bloggers with thousands of readers, who can make a living on blogging alone. I must say, to get paid to write would be a dream come true, but I have no plans of giving up my day job of nursing. I wonder if people who get paid to blog have editors or if they have to still rely on their own skills. Boy, that would be something. I try my best, but the fact that I slept through my sophomore honors English class has become woefully apparent over the past year. My apologies to those of you out there cringing at the lack of commas, misuse of colons and semicolons (I can never get those straight!) or out-and-out wrong words, such as last week when my mother pointed out after I had posted that I wrote “feint of heart” rather than “faint.” Oh well, one of the first hurdles I jumped when I started, was the feeling that I should only post something if it was perfect. I decided right from the beginning, that I’m not an editor, nor perfect, and my blog won’t be either, and that I wouldn’t let that stop me. However, I’m not embarrassed or upset if someone wants to point out my errors. I welcome constructive criticism.

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” ~William Wordsworth

Even more than that, I welcome all the wonderful comments, on Facebook, on my site and in person. The fact is, I would write anyway, it’s gotten to be a necessity for me. I don’t post everything I write, a lot of it is therapy for me, and not intended for the public. But, I do put alot of personal things out there, because I believe that good writers are honest writers. It has been the things that I write that make me emotional as I write them, that people have responded to the most. Some have said that they’ve cried when they read certain ones, some have said that they have laughed. To have someone say that they felt something, good or bad, from what I wrote, is the biggest complement I could ever receive.

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.” ~ Robert Frost

Reflecting over this past year, I’m very grateful to my family and friends who encouraged me to start a blog. My goal, a year later, is the same as when I started, which is to get my thoughts out of my head and on paper, hopefully for someone to enjoy, but as an oulet for myself if nothing else. I would love to write a novel, and to that end, I have pinned about a hundred inspirational quotes on a Pinterest board, from some of the world’s greatest writers. As I’ve yet to write one word of this future best-seller, I might have to stop pinning and start doing. Hmmmm, that reminds me of that pallet swing I want my husband to get going on. Anyway, as most writers do, I do my homework (ha!) by reading for pleasure. But mostly, I just observe and notice. I try to remember to smell, feel, look and listen wherever I am, and whatever I’m doing, because stories are everywhere, something my poor family and friends have learned over the past year. Be careful what you say in front of me, because it might end up in print!

“My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.” ~Ernest Hemingway

My first post is below, and as only five people saw it, well, possibly only three, I decided to show it again.