Well, I took almost two weeks off to relax, regenerate my enthusiasm, and recharge my brain. Since work hours are pretty much the only time when anyone reads online, I decided that no one was going to read here during the holiday anyway. However, I’ve finally reached the point where I need to start writing again – I’m kind of lost without my daily blogging exercise! I now have fresh ideas, a hunger to write, and some perspective.
About a year ago, I started blogging here. My original goal for Comma ‘n Sentence was for it to be a place where I could brainstorm and share my ideas for online writing, editing, and social media marketing, specifically as these things relate to Too Shy to Stop.
On January 9, 2009, I wrote:
From now on, I am going to blog about my experiences as editor-in-chief and creative director of Too Shy to Stop. Every day, I learn something new from my writers and readers, and I want to share and document these moments. I have many ideas about the future of my online magazine, and I want to ask you for your feedback. I hope you will join me on this journey, beginning today, with a new website that I completely love.
Over the course of the past year, I’ve learned a lot about myself, my limits, my goals, and how much time I’m willing to devote to my own projects vs. how much time I need to devote to my other responsibilities: work, family, friends, and relationships.
I had a chance to appreciate my peers’ creative endeavors, I got some positive press, and I stopped taking myself so seriously. I got a lot of great feedback and questions from readers by crowd-sourcing on Twitter and Facebook and also by e-mailing with friends and professional peers.
Maintaining and updating this blog has helped me make new friends, given me a better grasp of social media and social media marketing strategies, provided me with the time to think and a reason to write every day (vital since I finished graduate school), and a chance to learn other skills like photo-editing and creating/updating a Wordpress website.
I experimented with video posts, process posts, and Q&As, and I posted my results for social media marketing and advertising efforts. I wrote about my concerns with journalistic ethics, companies that were taking advantage of consumers/doing a great great job with customer service online.
While blogging in 2009, I learned that I can’t be perfect/expect myself to be perfect, that not everyone will like what I have to say, and that people will agree with/disagree with/ignore/praise/follow me. I learned that I should be consistent, persistent, genuine, and real. I should write even when I don’t feel like writing because the end result will always be something more than I had before I started writing.
In 2010, I’m going to be funnier, more genuine, more creative, and more experimental. I want to take more risks with my writing and continue to explore topics that are meaningful and interesting to me. I’m going to write a new post every weekday. Expect me to be bolder, to confront ideas and people, and to really think about topics that matter to me most.
Here’s to a happy and exciting New Year!
