Why Do I Keep Starting New Blogs?
I’ve always wanted to be a writer – a novelist. You know how if feels when you have a special relationship with something? When you have a knowledge nobody else has or know something more intimately? A secret love or understanding.
That’s me and books. I love the smell of them. The feel of them. The endless amount of knowledge and travel and adventure in them. To me, they’re magic – the entire world encased in ink and pulp.
(My earliest memories involve books and reading; I even remember my kindergarten librarian’s perfume. For years I would catch a whiff of it on a stranger as she passed by, and it was the most beautiful, timeless scent ever imagined. In my 30s, I finally traced it in Nordstrom’s department store: Estee Lauder’s Youth Dew. I bought a bottle for myself, but it didn’t smell the same. And I stopped wearing it, because I didn’t want to destroy its magic.)
In my 60+ years, I’ve certainly read tens of thousands of books. I’d love to say they were all literary classics, but I’d be lying. Give me an adventure, a puzzling whodunnit, or (in my younger days) a nice, racy bodice ripper. Sure, I like a well-written book with depth and meaning. But some literature is just… too literary. I don’t have time for naval gazing. Entertain me, please.
So like many avid readers, the desire to write followed naturally. And I did write: short stories, diaries, journals, articles, letters to the editor. I even wrote a couple of children’s books (unpublished). But my real, true desire – to write a novel – well, I can’t get my head around it.
Is it my ADHD? The long-form, sustained application of the craft? The intimidating length of the project? Whatever the problem, my brain just freezes with literary stage fright when I try putting words to paper.
Enter the blog.
Blogging is an ADHD writer’s paradise. The subjects are endless. The articles are short. And for $15, I can get register a shiny new domain and ride that dopamine for an entire week. Just long enough to have a brilliant brain flash, buy a domain, develop the site, write a few opening articles and then drop it once I’ve sucked the energy dry.
Oh – and did I mention that I’m hopelessly entrepreneurial? That’s the second level of drama here. I also want to make money from the site. (*insert eyeroll*)
Right now I own twenty domains. Twenty! Each one has a fascinating premise behind it. Each one is experience I want to share, a story I want to tell. None of them are a single premise I want to develop and grind away at weeks and months and years from now.
But the need to write publicly remains. And the need to create a blog remains.
So here I am. Starting yet another new blog – about starting yet another new blog. Yep, it sounds a bit certifiable, doesn’t it?
Well, here’s the difference: this blog isn’t a business idea. I’m not adding affiliate links all over the place or starting a social media campaign. I’m not stressing about SEO, blog categories or keywords.
This blog is about skipping all that nonsense – just writing for my own discovery and creativity.
Honestly, I don’t know what will end up here. It doesn’t matter.
I’ve been addicted to blog creation because I love the discovery of new ideas, design and writing. So expect this place to be an eclectic mess – a “digital garden” of sorts.
Live well and do good things –
