Happy August 31st!!!

Happy end of National Blog Post Month--which, as I pointed out on day one, is every month if you want it to be.

First, the real talk: this was really exhausting. I had work! I did a lot of traveling! I had a lot of meetings! I wanted to sleep in on weekends! And yet, I was at my computer typing away--and yes! I did write every day. I only pre-scheduled one post because I was in DC without an internet-abled computer, but every post I either wrote the day of publishing, or I started writing the night before and finished it the next day when I published.

Or I woke up really fucking early (I'm talking 3 a.m.) to write. It was stressful. I mean...writing once a week is hard enough--not that I ever kept that schedule. If you know me and this blog (I write this as if I have all these avid readers and loyal fans, which isn't true so sorry for the weird sense of self-importance LOL), you know that I don't publish on a normal schedule.

But as exhausting as this whole thing was, it brings to my second point: I'm really glad I did this.

I wrote this at the halfway point, but I've always been hung up on this idea of an "audience." If you're writing in a public forum, you should care who's reading, right? And I do care. I care that more than 60,000 sets of eyeballs have clicked on my blog and posts over the last few years to read my writing. I care that people have been critical of me and others have praised me, and I care that blogging has given me a place to word vomit and bang out words and sentences that need to get out of my brain (and, occasionally, my heart).


It's funny that in my first post of the month, I was a bit relieved to have a prompt each day in case I hit writer's block, but ultimately, I didn't follow any of the prompts at all. I think that's part of what the challenge was: every prompt had to come from my brain. And you know I'm not a "Dear Diary" type of blogger, though maybe I should be seeing as how some of the biggest social media responses I got was for my post this month on dating.

And that's a big thing: I've always been grateful that anyone bothers to read what I write. I'm especially grateful to all of you who have commented (on this blog or on Facebook) and tweeted and emailed and texted me about my posts. Thank you for taking a couple of minutes out of your day to click and read as I discovered what being an ambivert meant, got ready for the day, said goodbye to an incredible friend, contemplated my favorite feelings, ranted about people who text while walking, figured out my superhero name, and went on adventures with #AnnaAndElsa. (And shout-out to Kristen and Cortney for being my first guest bloggers on this blog!)

Another reason I'm glad I blogged every day: even though I plan to take a hiatus from blogging (not that that's set in stone...), I do feel the wheels in my head spinning as I think about all of the creative projects I'd love to work on.

So let's see what happens. Maybe nothing. Maybe everything! I think what I've gained from typing away every day for 31 days is that there's no such thing as a creative block that can't be overcome in some way--it may not always be perfect...in fact, it may be just a bunch of literal world vomit...but at least it's something better than sitting paralyzed in fear of trying anything.

Onward!