The Very Beginning ... a Very Good Place to Start

I have been pushing around the idea of starting a blog for awhile. I've gotten out of the habit of writing, and I'm in a creative rut. Hopefully, writing with the chance of someone reading what I say will motivate me to dust off my creativity and find an outlet for my thoughts and creations. Perhaps I'll even quit driving my husband bonkers with rants and half-finished thoughts.

I hope I will post regularly and that I stay excited about blogging. This is the first time I've written independently for a public outlet. With the exception of graduate school papers, a few conference presentations, and reporting for a small-town newspaper, I normally keep my writing to myself. One shelf in my office contains a few dozen notebooks in various states of completion. Apparently I have a bad habit of starting a new notebook every time I get a new idea or want to write about a new subject, so the notebook with a quarter of a short story that I lost interest in writing can't share space with an essay, poems, or observations made while people watching. No one but me ever gets to look at those notebooks I've condemned to writer's purgatory, and my shelf is a terrible disgrace of spiral bindings and pretty covers.

Okay, I admit that the covers are half the reason I buy some of my notebooks. I can't resist cute kittens, gardens, and intricate patterns. Please direct me to Notebook Buyers Anonymous.

For the moment I have forbidden myself from buying anymore notebooks, no matter how pretty the cover or how pressing the wonderful new idea. I tell myself that it's for economic purposes -- why waste money on notebooks of which I intend to fill less than half? Space is at a premium in the house since Chris (my husband) is getting close to becoming almost as much of a bibliophile as yours truly. Our bookcases, nightstands, DVD rack, and end tables runneth over with books, books, and more books; it's unfair to the books and the notebooks than find themselves partially filled and cast aside to simply take up more space. Instead of wasting time, money, and space, I'm going to blog. I'm going to write and I'm going to let people read it!

I'm also going to give my pictures and crafts an opportunity to be seen. I'm tired of stifling my own creativity because I think no one would be interested. So here I am... and I hope I stay!