The Killer Inside Me*

What blogging has taught me:

1.  In eleven months, haven’t had any writer’s block.  If you know that your readers are expecting a piece, you’ll write one.  It’s the same as writing to a deadline.  Thank you all so much for reading and for all your comments.  It means such a lot to me.

2.  A two, three, four hundred word piece has to be concise and to the point.  It has to have a theme, or be a self-contained scene.  There’s no room for waffle or digression.  Blogging forces editing.  Have to become ruthless and murder beautiful sentences if they’re not on topic.

3.  The WordPress community is international.  People all over the world read this blog, from Dubai to San Francisco and from Jerusalem to Capetown.  So whilst it’s important to include a bit of local detail, it’s vital not to make it too England or London centric.  

4.  The simple fact of it having a theme – dating after breast cancer surgery – forces me to focus each day on whether what I want to write is relevant or not.  Focus is important.

5.  I’ve learned a lot from reading other dating blogs, other mental illness and cancer blogs and other writing blogs.

6.  I’ve made friends with dating bloggers from all over the world.  Special shoutout to: Chantal and Shekinah, Sex and the City of Light, Back in Stilletoes and so many others.

7.  And have become enmeshed with other bloggers and involved with their stories: newauthoronline, After The Rain, Wide Ranging Rambling, Snakes In The Grass, The Hollyhock Door and Ellen Nguyen among many others.  It makes the lonely business of writing far less isolating.

8.  Am still in awe of the bloggers in their twenties and how they utilise this new medium.  Am getting a bit better at the technical side: am now able to put photos in my posts at last.  It only took me ten months or so.

Anyway: at the hospital again waiting for biopsy results.  

Wish me luck?

*1952.  By Jim Thompson.  Crime novel 

Advertisement