Blog Buried

     I have learned so much about writing in the last few months. When my friend Nicole suggested blogging I recoiled from the idea (sort of). I felt like it would hem me in. While I have, over the years become a highly organized individual, my writing was one area in which I was still pretty laissez-faire.    I suppose something in me felt like accepting the structure of a blog (even though I controlled that structure) would somehow stifle my creativity.

    The idea for “Reinventing the We’ll” actually started to form when my children moved off to college. That was a year ago next week. As you can see by the dates of my first blogs, I resisted the urgings for some months.

       It was my son who really encouraged me to give it a try. I have found that contrary to my first thoughts blogging has actually increased my creativity. I am writing everyday. I am discovering how to write and publish against my deep insecurities about the imperfections of my work. Everyday my editing is becoming a little faster, a little better (long way yet to go).

    the writing part has been falling into place nicely. Yet I have discovered that writing is really only a part of the writing game. Blogging has begun to introduce me to a part of this world with which I have never had experience, building a readership. I asked my son how he thought I should go about it. It was suggested I should start reading and commenting on other blogs I felt were interesting.

    It seemed like sage advice so I started doing this. I have read many blogs and commented on some. Of course in order to leave a comment I have to leave my e-mail address in order for follow-up comments to be sent my way via notifications.

    Everything was working fine. I made it my goal to start following one or two new blogs a week. I have a system. I read until I find a blog I would like to comment on. I  write my comment and sign up for follow-up comments to be e-mailed to me. I usually subscribe to the blogs I comment on.

     I was getting ten or twenty follow ups a day off of six or seven blogs I had subscribed to. This was very manageable. It never occurred to me that the only reason I was having such an easy time of it was because all the blogs I had chosen had readerships only a little larger than mine. I was blissfully unaware that there were monsters in the water, some having not hundreds but thousands of readers.

     A few weeks ago I found just such a monster. His was a really informative blog on, of all things, “blogging”. I was very excited and at the finish I commented with a request for resources to look into. I followed my system, checked off the spaces for follow-up comments and subscribed to the blog. Then I went to bed.

       My sleeping self was unaware that slowly ever so slowly through the night I was being blog buried. I awoke and followed my morning routine. At work I opened up my computer and called up my e-mail. EIGHT PAGES OF FOLLOW UP COMMENTS!!! I am still having nightmares.