Something So Strong, Could Carry Us Away, Something So Strong, Could Carry Us Today

--"Something So Strong", Crowded House

I admit it. This project got away from me. Five years ago (to the day) when I set about to start a blog finally, I was originally intending it to be what most blogs age. It was to be something that I worked on maybe once or twice a week. It was to be something that would chronicle the progress of my novel (in waiting... LOL) The Carisa Meridian. It was also supposed to be a solitary project, devoid of any assistance and devoid of anyone else's input. When I first set about writing this thing called California is a Recipe for a Black Hole, that's what I wanted. I wanted to follow the example set forth by my direct inspirations, Sammie's sdfsdfwox.org and Mindy's 5ilver.net, both great reads that were deeply personal to the authors, but never seeming to be over-produced and stylized. That just seemed to flow from brain to screen to reader, and that's the effect I wished to attain.

It just didn't work out that way.

I soon found out, much like in my days with Amethyst Exchange or Our Magazine, I have far too much to say most days and not enough time to say it all. That blew the whole concept of writing only once or twice a week a way. There was a time there, especially before Lucy signed on, that I was writing every day. I would tell me myself that I wrote only the day before and there simply was no need to post anything again so soon. But I would never listen. I would formulate a new idea somewhere along in my day, prompting me to break my promise, prompting to post back-to-back-to-back days.

Just as quickly I found myself having more fun writing on this blog than I did having writing my novel. It wasn't that my novel wasn't exciting to me. It was merely the fact that my novel demanded four to five hours of uninterrupted time to churn out one chapter of about fifteen to twenty pages. This blog, however, took an hour or two at most. Some days it only took me thirty or forty minutes to write. When I once again found gainful employment, I no longer possessed vast amounts of time to devote to writing a chapter every other day. But I did have time enough to write a post here and there. It became much simpler to translate whatever themes or motifs I was dreaming of using in my long story into my long posts. There was an immediate response there, whereas there was a part of my brain that knew most people would never even discover all the little insights I had packed into the later chapters of my novel. Most people who said they wanted to sample my novel never got past more than the first four or five chapters. That seemed like a waste of perfectly good idea, to place them in chapters fourteen onward, when I could get people's opinions immediately if I placed them here.

Lastly, after about six months of simply writing about myself, I got sick of it. It's not that I don't think I lead an eventful life. I do. It's just that, as a writer, I got sick of writing about me day after day. Sure, I could have limited the amount of time I devoted to the blog. By then, though, I had come to expect new material being displayed here every day or at least every other day. That's why I had to bring Breanne in, to break up the monotony. At first I was only going to have her write 15% of the time. That quickly grew to 33% to 40% of the time. At first she was going to be the only partner I took on here. Yet when "the troubles" began with her and her husband I knew I would have to find a replacement, temporary or otherwise. Fortuitously, Toby showed up in my life as she did because she did an admirable job of learning the ropes around here and then filling in for Little Miss Chipper when she finally did take her little sabbatical to work on her marriage.

So, yeah, this whole initiative got away from me. I was never intending it to take on the form it currently displays.

Of course, without these changes to policy and format, I had never intended to go on for five years either. I never had a time limit, but I was always of the mind that I'd stop doing this project as soon as it ceased being a joy to work on. I thought, like everyone seemingly starts a blog these days, that I would get bored and just hang up my pen one day.

I have to say, though, the way the cogs move and the manner in which the machine we've set up here churns along with a minimum of fuss, I might be writing this blog until I die. I never overwhelmed--none of us do. I mean--I post here at most three times a week, but mostly twice a week now. And the gals? They post once maybe twice a week. None of us feel pressured to put something down that isn't ready because we know everyone else has something to cover us should we feel like taking a break from it all.

I know personally that I feel like this is more like a fun retreat away from the real world than some kind of chore. Even when I end up writing five or even fifteen more pages than I intended to, it never feels like I have to fight my way to the end. It's just a pleasure to write here... with the best partners in the business and a mission statement that really is easy to attain. As it stands now, every post here just has to have three main ingredients. It has to be personal, it has to be entertaining, and it has to be more about the words than pictures or videos or links. Three simple ideas are all that govern what goes on here.

And yet the feeling is because there are really no restrictions at what one can write here, there really is no possible chance to run out of things to say. I mean it when I say I could see myself writing here forever.

And I daresay, without even having to ask B or Marion, that the feeling definitely is mutual.

Happy Fifth Anniversary to us!

Yours Swimmingly,
mojo shivers