Last Thursday, I put up a short post about trying on my wedding dress. It was a post I felt inspired to write spontaneously, and took just over twenty minutes from start to finish. It wasn’t planned. It wasn’t scheduled. It wasn’t even a full-length post; it was micro-blogging. Yet it got a great reaction from family and friends. It was shared and commented on, even by people who don’t often comment. Most importantly, it was fun and freeing to write, and I felt proud of it.
In the past few months, I’ve had ideas for blog posts I never wrote because I didn’t think I had the time to make it full-length (usually 650-1000 words). My ideas for blog posts usually aren’t like ideas for essays or short stories. They’re transient; they describe a moment in time, or a feeling I’m having. In the past, I’ve tried to pad them out to make them longer. I’ve also tried to arrange groups of them around a theme. But last Thursday I asked myself: why? Why not just write what I’m thinking that day? Why can’t it be short? It would be a great way to flex my writing muscle for short-form work, and I wouldn’t have to grieve the ideas that went unused.
Now that the summer is starting, my nights can lengthen a bit (meaning I might have time to write a short post AND read a book). I’m making a commitment to try micro-blogging a few days a week. The posts won’t be planned. They won’t be scheduled. They’ll happen when I can make them happen. And I think they’ll be the better for it.
I hope my readers will get to know me better this way. Leanne, short and unfiltered! Stay tuned!
Can’t wait! Might try something similar on Catching Happiness, as my blogging lately has been…sad.
I always like your blogging, Kathy! You share such interesting things, even when they’re just short quotes and poems.