It's been over a year since I've written a blog post. At the beginning of last year, I had high hopes that my writing would continue on a good trajectory, I'd continue to have good news to share, and I would be able to focus more attention on this blog and creative endeavors.
Then the pandemic hit, and, much like everyone else I'm sure, I was plagued with much doubt and uncertainty on a whole variety of things, my writing included. I have been very fortunate in that I have continued to work at my day job (at home instead of on site). Things at home, while very different (some kids at college, others at home doing remote learning), have been mostly fine. But the isolation and lack of contact with others outside the family has been slowly wearing on me. And my writing has all but dried up, due to a lack of energy, interest, and opportunity, among other reasons.
At this moment, however, I feel that the world as a whole is feeling more hopeful, now that there are a number of vaccines developed to handle this virus. I'm also feeling a little more hopeful myself that the end of this craziness is in sight.
The theme of this blog post is "revival". Much like society is slowly reviving, I thought it was time for my writing to do so as well, but how to do that? I've already been down this road a number of times in my life. What makes this time any different? While sifting through my writing files, I realized I have a lot of old stories lying around in various states of completion. Some are nothing but one-sentence ideas. Others are completed stories that just need a little polishing. The majority of them are somewhere in between. This gave me an idea on a goal I can work on for the remainder of this year. I've decided it's time for me to revive my old stories.
Along with that, I've also decided to revive this blog along with my stories. I look around at other writers' blogs and social media accounts, and they all have so much content and other writers have so much to say. I used to think that I had nothing to say that would be of any interest to anyone, writers or otherwise. But I realize that I've been writing long enough now that I do have lots of experiences I can share.
Some of them are lessons I've learned over my years of writing. Some are fun, crazy, and scary anecdotes. Some are just the voices in my head that tell me that I'm a fraud and that I shouldn't be wasting my time doing any of this. Even those experiences are shared experiences of many writers I've spoken to over the years, and just by talking about them, I might be able to relate to those writers, to tell those writers that it's OK to have these feelings, and to tell them that those feelings can be locked in a box and thrown out to sea, because we don't have to listen to them and they only prevent us from being happy with what we do and what we are.
I am hoping that others are also feeling a little more hopeful this year and are also reviving their own writing somehow. If you are, feel free to drop a comment and let me know what your revival plans are. I would love to hear from other writers, because along with reviving my writing and this blog, I'd also love to revive my communication with others (which is a whole other blog topic, maybe for another day).
