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| Two years! |
Mostly I was busy. I started the blog with a few things in mind, although there was the hope that somehow the blog would bring me an ever-increasing readership. This is not the case. If you’re reading this post, you’re one of the few. Be proud of it. After a few months, in anticipation of the coming readership, I started serving ads on the page, but at my current readership, that should pay off sometime in 2034 (and then again in 2054).
One of my goals was to recapture my own voice, to make this blog sound like me. In my prior life, I did a lot of corporate writing, and I found that when I got home I would be writing in that same corporate speak. Who wants to read that? Not even the recipients of those corporate screeds really wanted to be reading it, but that’s what I had to write. I am happy to say, in that respect, the blog has done its job and I am writing something that is my own voice, for better or worse.
Although I found myself becoming a blogger, that was never the endgame. I hope people enjoy this, but I don’t see these blog posts as my life’s work. I wasn’t trying to get to my voice in order to become a better blogger, but to be a better writer. I’m writing fiction, but you don’t see that stuff showing up on the blog. Nor do I feel myself particularly competent to make pronouncements on how I write (with one exception). Why follow the advice of an unpublished writer? I might be on to something, but it’s too early to tell.
In the last year, the writing has taken more of my attention as I have become ever more serious about it. From October through April, I found myself writing and revising according to one sort of deadline or another (an MFA program[1], a grant program[2], a specific magazine deadline[3]), all of which I could see as more important than a blog position the history of Esperanto at that particular time.
There were also times in the blog’s first year when I applied heroic measures to make certain that the blog would not go silent. Before taking a lengthy trip, I wrote a series of blog posts in advance so that I would have them ready to post, as if I were just writing away. In 2015, as travel impended, I just couldn’t see myself taking so much time away from everything else I wanted to do so that the blog posts would continue, especially as I knew that when I returned, I needed to decide where I was in my career as a writer, and whether it would be worth my while to apply to the MFA program that did not accept me in 2014.[4]
What does Year 3 hold for Imp of the Diverse? I haven’t the faintest idea. There are some things I want to write; I even have upcoming blog posts drafted out (some are things I started to write and lost the time or will to finish). I know I need to get more stories written, and those won’t be showing up on the blog. I do know that this blog still runs on ego.[5] If you want to see more of this blog, get your friends to read it and you and your friends should comment on my posts.
Writing is a lonely task, and there’s plenty out there to discourage writers. I already know that I should have a real job. Encouragement helps.
You can follow my blog on Twitter (@impofthediverse) or on Facebook. If you like this post, share it with your friends. If you have a comment just for me, e-mail me at impofthediverse@gmail.com.
This blog runs solely on ego! Follow this blog! Comment on this post! Let me know that you want to read more of it!
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