Beginnings Blogfest
Happy Blogoversary to L.G. Keltner! Completing a first year in this writing community with just shy of 200 followers is an accomplishment in itself, but doing so while sending out enormous amounts of positive energy and dedicating tons of time to supporting fellow writers deserves some recognition. I'm a fan of this blog mostly because L.G. writes awesome flash fiction in one of my favorite genres, but also because her entries never fail to inspire me to focus on the positive side of writing. If you're not a follower, you probably should be! In celebration, some of us are participating in the Beginnings Blogfest... which you can find more info on by clicking the photo link to the left. As for my entry... It all began long ago in a far away place... no really, it did!
Much like another planet, I started my blogging journey on LiveJournal and by long ago, I mean December 22, 2004. Holy cow... now that I've put that in writing I feel SUPER old. Was that really 9 years ago? Yikes. I was 25 years old, newly (again) single and trying to find my way through transition. I complained about boys, friends who were boys and boys that I worked with. Basically, if I'd set my mind to it, I could have written the scripts for the new HBO series "Girls" back then. I had an audience of maybe 5 followers, but I wrote with dedication and ferocity just about every single day. The venting was my stress relief and the party recaps were my bragging rights. Then on March 19, 2005, I posted a goodbye to LiveJournal with the announcement that I was moving over to MySpace "in an attempt to make real friends, not just computer friends". Spoiler alert: it worked. My daily blog on MySpace was a hit... I received friend requests left and right... and I even got plagiarized once by an elementary school English teacher. Through that site I made a few life long friends and racked up a couple more ex-boyfriends. I fed off the energy of all the commentary and discussion threads that my posts ignited. Of course, my biggest fan was myself. I would go back and re-read how clever and witty my entires were and laugh to myself in the middle of the night. Yes, I truly was full of myself back then. Many of my favorite entries were transfered here to Blogger when MySpace died off and Facebook became supreme ruler of social networking. If you were bored and had about a week of free time on your hands, you could probably read through them all, as they were posted during the month of December 2009... but I wouldn't recommend it. Not a single one is about creative writing or anything truly constructive. So, years later, here I am with a repurposed blog focusing on my intent to get myself published (eventually) and I have to wonder... when would my "blogoversary" be? Surely, I can't count all the years spent pontificating my existence and making friends laugh within in a private circle. I guess I'd have to set my start date to May 24, 2012 when I shifted from a private blog meant for friends only to a public blog where I meant to join an online writing community. That was also the point when the complete and total confidence shifted to modesty and insecurity. No longer was I making jokes about my social life (partly because as a wife and mom, I no longer had one), but instead I was sharing my writing journey with *gasp*... strangers! Of course, I soon found out that these "strangers" were actually a group of the kindest, most supportive people I'd ever come into contact with. Alex J. Cavanaugh's IWSG blog hop every month was instrumental in pulling me out of my shell and forcing me not to give up, even when I'd slacked off for a week or two without posting a word. And there were several other flash fiction style blog hops that were a blast. It's been such a positive experience and I look forward to finishing my WIPs so that I can spend more time giving back to the blogging community that has helped me so much... but back to the point: this is about beginnings. In summary, I suppose you could say that my beginnings are really just beginning.
Thanks again to L.G. for not only hosting this blogfest, but also for providing months of inspiration and entertaining reading. Cheers to year two!
Posts
Yes, I'm old enough to remember the MySpace days. I saw the start of Twitter and the start of Facebook. At first, I hated Facebook and loved Twitter. Now Facebook is my favorite. I've tried LifeJournal and Wordpress for blogging, but I prefer Blogger. Happy 2013!
It's great to read about your beginnings, and I'm so glad to meet you through this fest. I'm sure I'll see you around the IWSG too! :)
Plagiarized by an English teacher? It sounds like you have had some awesome posts!
I like what you said about beginnings. Thanks for sharing your journey.
So many years of experience in blogging! I just discover blog like 6 months ago. I'm stuck in the age of the dragons and smoke signals. But this is a great community. :)
Wow! Thanks for saying so many nice things about me! I'm impressed that an English teacher plagiarized you. You know your writing rocks when that happens!
Thanks for participating in my blogfest!
Wow, that's quite a journey! I can't imagine being online that long. My blog was my first venture onto the web and that was only three years ago.
Glad you found the IWSG and this awesome community!
I laughed at a lot of this, because I'm definitely where you were back in the day. I love writing and participate in a lot of writing-based groups, but my blog is broader than that. It's what I enjoy at this point; who knows how it will evolve?
Visiting from L.G.'s blogfest - nice to meet you.
"... I even got plagiarized once by an elementary school English teacher..."
You intrigue me, T. I want to know this story. Where can I find it??? I'm popping in from the Beginnings Blogfest, by the way. Nice to meet you!
we are pretty nice strangers huh? would you like to come with me, i have candy?? just kidding. i enjoyed reading your journey tanya! you are one awesome girl.
I never took my MySpace page down, so it may still be up somewhere. I don;t even know anymore...haha. Thanks for sharing. IWSG has been in integral part of my blogging adventure as well.
@Jolle, Julie, Tyrean & Al: Thanks so much and yes, it's been a experience to say the least :-)
L.G.: You deserved every word... thanks for hosting!
Alex: As always, thanks you for the support!
Mina: Nice to meet you, too! The original post was something I wrote on my opinion of the term "soulmate" and it's mixed in with those '09 transferred posts on here... but I'll see if I can't dig up the exact link for ya ;-)
Tammy: Quit making me blush with your equally awesome self!
Michael: Oh, mine is still out there, too... but I'll be damned if I can remember the password, let alone the last time I logged in. Ok, I take that back... it had to be Dec '09 when I transferred my blog posts here... of course, now I can't help wonder if I have any long, lost unanswered messages from a previous life. Good thing I lost my password, and probably the email account I used to set it up. :-)
I never blogged on MySpace - I was just on there for the free music. :) I still have an LJ but hardly ever go there at all. It never really 'stuck'. I do have a personal diary online that I update regularly but it's not public. My blog is for my writing and other creative stuff. :)