I really should...

... actually start blogging again.

It's been a quiet few months and need to get back to the happy work of blogging and updating those of you who actually do come here to see if I've updated. Because it is kind of cruel of me to have just disappeared without even a mention of a hiatus.

But a hiatus is what I had, I took myself away from blogging -- really from writing at all -- and it was a much needed hiatus. My story was in a rut and my blog was getting to the point (or well past it) where I wasn't coming up with the topics myself but depending on the topics of others and stating my own opinion. When I noticed that I realised that I had to step away, that I had to give myself a break from the creative world to let my mind take a break. Have you ever gotten to that point? Or am I alone in that?

Now that I have take a handful of months to work on other aspects of my life and to let those creative juices build up I hope to become a little more consistent in my writing and blogging. Hopefully I can stick to that.

So to get myself back into the swing of my stories, to hopefully incorporate the ideas that have been building, I've decided to read through and lightly edit what I had already written. I want to familiarise myself with where I had previously been heading with the story and play with it so it will fit better with the new road I want to take it down. It has been fun and tiring to see where it was going, and I hope to make it better.

There was something else that I realised while on this little hiatus of mine: that I have been living in a little, lonely cave. Let me try and explain that in the context of writing: for as long as I can remember I have been always considering writing as a very solitary task. I know those of you out there that are writers are probably laughing your butts off and I am completely embarrassed that I admitting this. But I've been reading other writers' blogs and it was like that light bulb going off:

I don't have to do this alone!

I've been looking at the blogs of other writers for awhile now -- both aspiring and published -- and I really started to see how the dots connected. The people I read about always talked about others in their journey: people who helped them through problems by reading through the work, people who gave opinions on the story in general. They talked about the agents they touched base with while querying their work, and then their relationship with that agent if they get that wonderful letter or call that signs them as a working pair. Then you have editors, publishers and everyone else that join the party. They are never alone.

Yes, writing is a very personal project for the writer, and can usually be very solitary and internal in the first stages -- unless you are writing as a pair or group, in which case I give many kudos since its so hard to meld voices that can be so individual -- but once you have gotten the bones of a story down you really are no longer alone, or shouldn't be. I think that is the biggest step I have tried to make in the last bit of time.

I am very nervous about the judgement of others. I mean it took me until very recently to start sharing my writing with my husband and my family. It felt too personal, too secret, too strange. It was something about myself that made me different from most people in my life (which is kind of a pathetic reason) and I was scared to share. But it was so fulfilling to finally share with them. And to hear from my husband that he wanted to read more was music to my ears. But people who are close to you can be biased (my husband swears he is trying not to be but you never know) and I want to see if I get the same reaction from those who are not that close to me.

So this is when I ask you readers out there for a favour. I want to get out of this cave -- and I already have but this new light is bright -- and join the world around me. The writing world that I have been keeping myself from. But I need recommendations. What are good sites or places to find people to critique your work, what are good sites in general to look at, or blogs, or anything. Are there conferences I should be trying to attend, are there memberships I need to get. Help me if you would! Because I don't want to do this alone any more.

Any help will be much appreciated and I'll love you forever!

 

Cara Mia Amore