About Time

It's past "about time" I got back to writing blog posts.  There are two reasons I've been remiss about posting.  The first is that I have not developed a readership. And people who do read the blog do not post comments, because currently only people who have some Google account can add a comment. A major reason I began blogging was to start a dialogue about religious viewpoints: no comments, no dialogue. What's more, it seems that no one can read my blog unless they get to it through a post by me on Facebook. (How I wish Google had a phone number for "customer care.") The second is more personal: I am spending so much time revising my manuscript on my own religious journey that any other writing uses up energy which might go toward that.

What, then, brings me here today? I made a pact with another member of the Write Group who said she also had not been blogging for a while. We said we'd each write at least one post before January 15th.  She beat me to it, yesterday. So: congratulations, Nancy.

In the summer, I joined a Write Group ...group...on memoir writing. I was not altogether positive when I walked into the first session.  But I have learned something every session about my own work, and comments by me on other members' work have it seems been useful. Yesterday, I attended for the first time an essay/short story-writing session by another sub-group of the Write Group.  New people to me, mostly.  Good writing to listen to.  Some genuinely sound criticism of what I brought to read.  Another check mark in favor of the Write Group. Joining the Write Group is a decision I'm very glad to have made.

Going to the sessions does take time away from writing.  But, then, so do three-quarters of the things I do every day.  And <i>they<i> don't help me become a better writer.  For I am becoming that, although I am tempted to say "better still" because I've been a good writer for some time.  But the sense that time is running out, accompanied by feedback I get in Write Group sessions, multiplied by my love affair with the delete button when I revise--all combine to improve my writing.

I figured that buddying up might impel me to get blogging.  We'll see. One post does not an ongoing blog make.