The beginning is always the hardest. You want the way you start something to set the tone for whatever comes next. We're told we need to grab attention from the get-go, we need to catch attention, hold interest, and wow them from the first. We're trained on elevator speeches; we should be able to say everything that's important in no more than 15 seconds.
To that I say: high expectations, sir, are often paired with disappointment. But whatever, right? Who cares? For most bloggers, of whom an overwhelming majority are amateur writers (including myself), we are our own greatest critics. We may have very high standards for ourselves, individually, but there is no standard globally. As a people, as a species, we shall express ourselves as we will, always have and always will.
No, the important question is not whether an introduction is engrossing from the start, or if it's even very good. The important question is why. Why have a blog? Why write about anything? There's got to be a reason, and the rest will follow. Best thing I ever learned in grad school: have a mission and follow it. If something doesn't support the mission, get rid of it. It's the same concept as the best writing advice I've ever gotten or given: have a point, have a story, and if there is something that's in your writing that doesn't go with the point (even if it's the coolest thing in the whole world), get rid of it. Save it for later, when it has a place in something else, but get rid of it for now.
So I ask myself: why am I starting this blog? What do I have to write about? Well, lots, actually. But the point for me, here, now, is writing.
Every couple of years I go through a phase of complete and total dissatisfaction in my work. I'm old enough now and have been through enough jobs that I understand that I'm the problem. Classic it's not you (job), it's me. I get dissatisfied for what I think are many different reasons, but ultimately, I think I'm dissatisfied with a lack of ways to be creative in my daily work.
I need to be creative. I don't need to be unique (any more than I am already) and I certainly don't think I am all that unique. I know lots of people need to create, they need to contribute and make and put things out into the world. And those are my people. It's not the jobs that are dissatisfying, it's my stifled and hungry creative side and needs some room to breathe.
I'd love to be a writer. Or maybe I'd love to be able to work from home, and still be part of the world. That's my dream. But what I discovered was that to be able to fulfill my own dream, I can't just sit on my couch and watch Harry Potter for the 1000th time. I need to produce if I want to create. I need to write if I want to be a writer.
So that's what I'm doing here. I know I may not get a lot of traffic, I might not even make any money (I'm still holding out my tea cozies business will build my bank roll), but I'll get some practice writing, editing, and showing off some of my non-verbal creations, generally of the yarn disposition.
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