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!