One wise friend made his New Year’s resolution to write at least five hundred words a day; about two pages, double spaced. I’ve never been one to make resolutions, because I hate to be disappointed, especially with myself, but this year a resolution of sorts fluttered into  my lap(top). All this fuss about “platform” – blogging, tweeting and the like has felt like pressure to me, time spent away from the important business of writing what I’m writing; what I want to be writing. But I’ve sucked it up and created this blog and a twitter account, and try to post once a week.

My Platform

Well, I built it, and only a few came, mostly my writing friends with their own clever and entertaining blogs, and a few old friends who who want to support me. We all comment on each other’s posts and have created a cozy comfortable little circle. But I wanted more: more commentary, more traffic, more engagement. This business is supposed to be about making friends, not about “selling” yourself. That’s what they say. The wisdom is to comment on blogs and they will check you out. I read Nathan Bransford and Rachel Gardner’s blogs, but felt nervous about commenting. What if I sounded like an idiot? What if I said something so glaringly obvious that I would be able to hear them laughing all the way to Sebright (It’s okay if you don’t know where that is, just trust me – it’s far from where you live.)

Okay, now comes the part about my resolution. I told myself it was time to stop being such a coward and search out other writing blogs and make comments. So I did. What a wonderful thing to do, I’ve discovered. There are some very entertaining, enlightening, fun, sweet, and touching blogs out there, by some very cool people. And I don’t feel as if I’m pretending to make friends while I’m actually trying to sell myself. Now I wish I had more time to search out blogs and connect with their authors.

Here are some of my favorite new writers of blogs:

http://slicewriting.wordpress.com/

http://snagglewordz.wordpress.com/

http://myrandommuse.wordpress.com/

http://limebirduk.wordpress.com/

The writing of lots of words isn’t an issue; it doesn’t need a resolution. Tomorrow I begin my Novel Approach to Memoir year-long course with Sue Reynolds, so I will be turning out at least two pages a day. And on the 15th of February we set off for Costa Rica to write our hearts for two weeks straight. Oh yes. (Two spots left, folks!)