It took three writing conferences and nearly five months, but I finally made a blog. I should really say re-made a blog, as I believe this is my third attempt to become a blogger. I'm a writer, always have been, so I assumed that journaling, blogging, and the like would be a natural extension of what I already do. It isn't. Not even remotely. If I were to show you the pages of journals I've attempted to keep over the years, you would see random mutterings of mine from various ages, never more than one or two in a row, often spaced with several months of nothingness.
So, I've never been very good at the concept of blogging, even before the Internet was a part of my daily life. I even have a journal that looks like the one River Song carries on Doctor Who, and that's got all of three entries in it, despite how awesome it is. If you're drawing the conclusion that I'm not very good at keeping a consistent record of my life, then my attempts at plain communication are succeeding. That's a good start.
I mentioned the writing conferences I've been attending because I lost count of how many people told me to get a blog. I attended my first writing conference in February of this year, and everyone stressed the idea of blogging so intensely that I immediately decided I was going to try again. Obviously, given that this first post is coming to you in June, I didn't do it right away. That conference was Re:Write in Austin, and it was one of the biggest influences on my life and my writing that I've had recently.
Two months later, I attended NorWesCon, a science fiction and fantasy convention in SeaTac. The vibe of that conference was very different, but I walked away again with the impression that I really should start a blog. Fast forward just a bit to May, when I attended the Northwest Christian Writers Association Renewal conference, and the concept was hammered home even further.
That brings us to now. I've been working consistently, but that's not why I haven't started a blog before this. Truth be told, I'm very good at distracting myself when I have goals to accomplish. It's one of my special skills. I had some free time today though, and I realized I really need to just do it. The longer I wait, the less likely it is to happen. So, that's how I came to have a blog again at ten o'clock on a Friday night.
Speaking of the hour, I should really point out the wonderful blessing it is to have a best friend who will explain the logistics of owning a domain and running a blog under that domain at nearly midnight in their time zone. There's a reason I've been going to the same person with any technology or Internet questions since 2009.
Ultimately, this is going to be a place for me to talk. Sometimes it might be about something I need to get off my chest, it might be about my writing, or it might just be about my life. That's why the title says Work In Progress. Whether we're talking about my life or my books, it's an accurate description.
I think at the end of a blog post I'm supposed to pimp myself out on social media and the like, so feel free to check all that out if you feel so inclined. Hopefully this will be a regular thing. I suppose we'll see if that's the case together.