When I mentioned to Jennifer that I had completed the Blog Every Day For A Week Challenge, the first thing she asked me was if I had enjoyed it. I had, it’s been a lot of fun and I’m really happy to have been able to make time for writing again; it’s something I’ve missed. The second thing she asked me was if I was going to continue blogging daily, like I used to. That one was a little harder to answer.
I love writing – I love it almost as much as I love film making and comic creation. It’s one of those creative arts that I have been taking part in for so long that it’s moved from being a pastime and become a part of me as a person. I think I’ve mentioned before that my first business, back when I was fourteen and working out of my bedroom, was producing a small press magazine. I wrote a couple of novellas around that time as well. Writing has been something I’ve just always done.
For a while it was difficult to find the time to do it, because I was always prioritising something else. It stopped being “work” when my last freelance writing gig ended around 2012 and since then, I’ve always prioritised whatever other jobs or projects I’ve been doing (because a girl’s got to eat, you know?). For quite a while, blogging was something I wanted to do but could never quite find the time to. If there was another hour or two in the day, maybe…
But this last week was an experiment and a personal challenge: find half an hour at least (more if possible) to write an article, even a short one, every day. The time I found to do that was during the upload of my vlog; i.e. the last thing at night. This has a lot of advantages, the primary one being that I literally had nothing else pressing on my time when it’s the middle of the night and everyone is asleep. The other main advantage (and I can’t stress how useful this one is) is that nobody is going to come into the office and ask me to do anything, because it’s the middle of the night. It’s perfect writing time.
Oh, and there’s a deadline: when the vlog upload is done, I’m due to head off to bed. If I end up writing past that time, I end up missing out on time in bed, and there’s not a lot of that already. I’m a big fan of deadlines, I do my best work when facing one. It makes me focus, it gives me something to aim for. Deadlines are great.
So now I’ve found this little oasis of time, I think that yes, I will keep blogging. I enjoy it, I love the fact that I’m writing again, and it doesn’t feel like I’ve stolen time from any other important part of my day. I can put the time I was using to just browse the Internet while I wind down at night to good use. I think this is definitely a win-win situation in that regard.
So it looks like the blog is back. I’ll see you tomorrow night for another update! 🙂