My rough and winding path to a creative personal blog
Over the years, my declarations of “I’m starting a new blog!” have become something of a joke for me and my husband. Okay, mostly for my husband. Because every time, I was sure that I was going to stick to whatever niche or blog purpose that had caught my attention.
Then Google would change its algorithm, requiring a new learning curve that I didn’t want to follow. Or I would decide that I’d rather write novels. Or dive head-first into YouTube.
So many online creative and teaching opportunities to explore! Around 2010, the possibilities glimmered like the sun reflecting off the glassy surface of a calm lake – inviting, tantalizing, promising. I answered the invitation, believing the promise of being able to make an income while following my passions. At the very least, I wanted enough fans to validate and justify my efforts.
Two things prevented either from happening. First, whatever endeavor I began, I began a little too late to find easy success. Unfortunately, being neurodivergent, stress comes much more easily to me than success. Eventually, any online opportunity I tried felt like a job. The kind of soul-sucking job that makes people moan when they wake up on Monday morning.
Blogging.
Writing novels.
Creating videos for YouTube.
The worst job of them all.
I left my teaching position in 2006 to be a stay-at-home mom, and when my son was finally old enough to be somewhat independent, I had a lot of free time. I get bored easily. I get anxious if I’m not working on a project. And my mind is always swirling with words, thoughts, stories, ideas. They need a place to land.
So I turned to writing Christian romance novels. “Everyone” was saying how easy it was to make money as a self-published romance novelist. And I knew I could do it. I’d written a couple of novels to pitch to literary agents. And at a Christian writing conference in 2004, an editor told me that my work was good enough to be published (just not by the small publishing house he worked for at the time).
So I wrote one series. Then another. I made mistakes, but the reviews on my books were mostly positive.
Yes, writing novels kept my brain busy. Yes, I felt great satisfaction whenever I typed, “The End.”
But.
Churning out several novels a year, even for a fast writer like me, takes an emotional and psychological toll. And then when you end up making two bucks an hour from sales, the effort begins to feel akin to chain-gang prisoners digging a ditch, only to have to turn around and refill it.
But the primary problem wasn’t monetary. The primary problem was I’ve never liked writing romance. I don’t like the constraints of formulas, which romance readers demand. I don’t like writing unrealistic-realistic stories, which romance novels are.
Fantasy would be fine. I could write fantasy, because fantasy stories are supposed to be unrealistic. But with every character I created and every plot I contemplated, I became more and more repulsed with myself for skewing reality.
In real life, romance doesn’t happen the way it does in novels. It’s a lot messier.
And isn’t the love story – the one that goes on after the couple says, “I do,” – the much more meaningful one?
Choosing to become a self-published romance novelist drained much of the joy from my life. It wasn’t me.
“No one will ever read a creative personal blog.”
In the back of my head, while I was trying to stick to one-topic blogs, while I was abysmally failing at YouTube, while I was cranking out novels that I would inevitably be sick of writing about a third of the way in, was a still, small voice.
The voice urged me to write from my heart.
The voice encouraged me to write authentically.
The voice invited me to write the stories I really wanted to write.
The voice told me to stop trying to follow the rules, stop trying to make money, and just be myself.
But there was another voice. You know the one. It’s the snarky, bitter one that never has anything nice to say. It kept telling me, “No one will ever read a creative personal blog.”
Because that’s what “everybody” says. That a blog has to be helpful. That a blog has to answer people’s questions.
That the old style of blogging is dead.
Authentic storytelling: the cry of my heart.
Five months before starting this blog, I started one called Golden and Growing. Having discovered very late in life that I’m neurodivergent, I wanted to encourage other women like me, to give them tips to simplify so they can find joy and reduce their stress.
I began the blog with an eye toward making money. It’s my income-passion project, you might say. I want to get paid, at least a little, for the help I provide there. However, I knew from past experience that I wouldn’t be able to stick with a one-niche blog for long if I didn’t have other, unrelated creative projects to work on.
At the same time, I realized I was done with the self-publishing machine. I recognized that, not writing four to five novels a year would mean a whole lot more free time.
The voice – the positive, encouraging one – came back, stronger than ever. This time, I listened.
If I set up a multi-topic blog, one that could serve as a creative playground, would I gain an audience? Even a small one would be okay. It’s not that I think the universe revolves around me, but that I just don’t want to be writing into a void.
I did a little research. It seemed possible, especially if I followed Google’s rules just a smidgen.
And a smidgen is okay. As long as I don’t feel hindered. Or like I’m working a job.
So, here I am. Well, here we are, if you’re reading this. 😉
I don’t know how you define authentic storytelling. I believe it incorporates both fiction and non-fiction. The authenticity flows from the writer’s intention. If the writer’s intention is to reveal a piece of themselves, to avoid deception, and/or to be true to their personal creative muse, then it’s authentic.
What you can expect from my creative personal blog.
This is just my first piece, so I can’t say for sure what all I’ll end up writing and posting here. The ideas floating around my head right now include:
- encouraging essays (sometimes Christian-ish, because that’s a big part of who I am),
- humorous how-to’s,
- rants (also sometimes about Christianity)),
- my bedtime designs (because my creativity doesn’t end with writing!), and
- writing fun – flash fiction, silly poems, outtakes from previous novels, sample chapters from possible future novels, etc.
I may be rebooting a YouTube channel. If I do, I’ll probably post those videos here, as well. The channel would act as an expansion of my creative playground – no niche constraints, no trying to please the algorithm in order to get views and make money.
If you’re like me and are tired of how-to blogs; have had enough of all the web articles that plagiarize each other endlessly in the hopes of climbing to the first page of search results; and despise the dry, clinical information dominating the Internet; if you wish for the old days when blogging was all about authentic sharing and you dislike having to comb through thousands of Substack accounts to find anything similar…
…if any or all of that fits you, then I believe you’ve found the right place.
I may or may not post often. I may or may not write things you agree with. But what I do write will be a snapshot of my inner wilderness for that point in my life.
If you’re good with that, then I hope you join me on this journey of authentic storytelling, where I get to be creative, quirky, and real.
Blessings and good wishes to you,
Emily