Well, it’s been three weeks since I started this blog. If I’m so excited about it (which I am), then what is keeping me from posting more frequently?  For starters, staring at my blank screen and all of these categories. I wonder how I will ever create a blog as great as the one by my agent Rachelle Gardner.  How will I find the words (or even the time) to enrich my readers? Better yet, how do I find readers at all??? 

I remember these fears.  They are the same ones that I had going into writing almost three years ago.   At that time, my friend Nancy gave me a wonderful book by the amazing Anne Lamott.  In Bird by Bird, Lamott gives the best advice on writing I have ever heard. Here are a few nuggets: 1) when you have a daunting writing project in front of you (such as a book report covering every species of bird) break it down into manageable pieces.  Take it “bird by bird” so to speak.  And 2) all first drafts are bad.  A bad first draft doesn’t make you a bad writer - everyone has them, so get over it.   Reading that book marked a turning point for me.  Not long after that I published my first articles.  A year later I had my first book contract, and now I’m on to working on my second.

So why the stress about blogging?  I think at this point, TIME is my biggest hurdle.  But everyone’s busy.  Like exercising, eating right, or recycling, it takes 21 days to create a new habit.  The only thing that separates the ones who do it from those who don’t is that they just do it (for more tips on gaining a following for your writing, check out my article 7 Ways to Build a Tribe).

The blogosphere is great fun, a place where anyone can find their voice, rally for a cause, and be themselves without pretense or editors.  If you are thinking about starting one, do it now so we can do it together. If you’ve already got one, please share your tips with the rest of us!