The only constant is change

I feel like my time for telling stories might be winding down.  I have been actively blogging for over eight years, and have been writing rather intensely for the past three.  I thoroughly enjoy sharing ideas through words – and yet, lately, creating blog posts has felt more like a task than a pleasure.  After spending the past few months struggling with the decision of do-I-or-don’t-I-keep-writing, I think I have come to a conclusion: I will keep writing, but it will look and feel different than the blogging I have done in the past.

Up to this point, every blog entry I have created has been a stand-alone story, written to the best of my ability.  Crafting (and sharing) these stories really was a lot of fun, and it definitely helped me develop and refine solid writing skills.  But taking such care to generate unique, creative, and well-developed items requires a lot of energy, effort, and time.  I found that I was starting to spend more and more time tucked away by myself in my office or at the library, clacking at a keyboard, and less and less time with other people, actually living.

I have so many things I want to do in my life – and I want writing to be a supportive tool to share these experiences, not a hindrance that keeps me from them.  So, from this point on, I am giving myself permission to change the manner in which I write.  Gone is the need to create meticulously-edited, magazine-quality articles; a published ‘rough draft’ is fine for this space.  Not every post has to be a sequence of paragraphs that flow smoothly; a bulleted list of key thoughts and ideas can usually convey the jist of what I’m trying to share just as well.  Entries don’t need to be 1000%, fully comprehensive; short blurbs that call out key highlights can be just as informative (and entertaining).  Basically, I give myself permission to write whatever is really on my mind, however it wants to come out onto the page/screen – be it a list, graphic, picture, as a random-stream-of-consciousness-ramble-of-ideas, or some other format that is somewhere within me but yet unknown to me.

Ah.  This feels good.  Already I feel relief from the self-imposed pressures I have been placing on myself.  This approach to writing feels more manageable.  After all, I create these entries because I want to remain connected to the people in my life whom I don’t get to see every day (as well as the new friends I have met along the way) – so I want this space to reinforce relationships, not get in the way of them.

So.  Welcome to yet another evolution of this blog.  I’m curious to see where it goes from here…  🙂

Stef