“They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.” –Confucius

Dear Readers,

Since this blog’s inception, I’ve struggled to define its purpose. I’ve struggled to answer the following questions:

Why am I blogging?

Who am I writing for?

What do I want to write?

The best I’ve come up with is a “blog perspective,” a mission statement of sorts, that defines my outlook on life: continual growth and learning, self-understanding, and strength in the face of adversity. But a blog needs to have more definition than that: the answer to the question, “What is the blog about?” should be a word or two, not a statement. I’ve never been able to decide on the answers to the above questions, and so I’ve taken a meandering path, trying new things, some more successful than others. As a result, I have a core of faithful followers who regularly connect with my blog (I suspect) because they like my voice and point of view. I am very grateful for those followers. The rest come and go, connecting with one topic, but not the next. I’m grateful for those followers, too, for inadvertently pointing out the weakness of my approach.

The new school year has forced me to re-evaluate all of my writing projects. Less time means intense prioritization, and it’s been hard for me to prioritize my blog when I don’t know why I’m doing it. So I sat down and made a list of all my current writing projects. The list looks like this:

You can see that my objectives for all my other projects are clear. Making the list helped me to understand, clearly and finally, that I want this website to reflect and represent my writing as a whole. But how to do that, when I’m working on such a range of projects? What’s the connection between young adult and adult historical fiction, self-improvement and cancer survivor stories, attempting to publish traditionally and trying e-publishing too?

My first thought was, there is no connection.

But then I saw it, and it was so ridiculously obvious that I kind of feel like an idiot for not identifying it sooner.

All of my projects are writing. They may hold different subjects, genres and even levels of truth, but they are all writing projects.

There’s my answer: I am a writer; I should write about writing. That’s what ties it all together.

Now, for the first time, I can answer the questions:

Why am I blogging: A writing blog will support my career in the way I’ve always intended, but never quite understood. I never wanted to make my blog the focus of my work; maybe that’s why I never committed to a topic. I don’t want to monetize it or make it commercial or spend more time promoting it than I already do. I want the blog to be part of my professional writer’s website, one I can use to connect with other writers, refer to agents and publishers, and eventually sell my books.

Who am I writing for? I’d like to catch the attention of more writers and book lovers, the people in my “tribe.” My current core audience, my regular readers who enjoy my voice and perspective, will likely continue reading whatever my topic is; after all, they’ve followed me through several changes of theme just in the last few months. I owe them so much gratitude, and hope they’ll stick with me.

What do I want to write? Well, of COURSE I want to write about writing. It’s my number one passion. It’s like writing about your lover, or your best friend. I’m never going to run out of things to say.

And here’s the best part.

I can keep the blog name. “Words From The Sowul” is PERFECT for a writing blog. I’m writing about words: the ones we read and the ones we write ourselves. That’s the answer to the final question, “What’s your blog about?” It’s about Words. (And I answered it in one!)

So, for all of you wondering, “What does all this mean…”

It means that I’ll be keeping my domain name, leannesowul.com, so you’ll know right where to find me. I’ll be keeping the blog name, too, so I’ll be just as searchable that way.

It means I will be taking a hiatus so that I can re-design and re-launch the website. I’ve never done this before, but I anticipate it taking from 4-8 weeks. I’ll be coming back, better than ever, with my new theme- WORDS- and tons of excitement and energy (at least on my end!). I’ll be promoting on all my usual social media sites, but just to make sure you don’t miss the re-launch, please take a second to subscribe to the blog right now. Put your email in the box on the sidebar, and then confirm when the email reaches your in-box. I promise, you won’t want to miss it! (While you’re at it, follow me on Twitter @sowulwords. I’ll be tweeting frequently in the run-up to the re-launch.)

As for my 300+ previous posts, I haven’t decided. They may be archived on the new website, or they may not. It depends on the re-design. I hope to find a space for at least some of them, but I also truly want a fresh start. So if there are posts that you enjoyed and would like to re-read, the time is now. I’d be happy to email anyone a copy (or take a screenshot) if you’d like to save one.

It’s time to fulfill the answers to my questions. It’s time to turn the page, to tie it all together, to own the fact that I am a writer.

It’s time to say goodbye, so I can say hello.

See you soon,

Leanne

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