Ican’t tell you how many times I’ve written only to stop, review, and then crumbled the piece up into a ball of jumbled words on a page and toss it into the trash. It has been a frustrating few months in my writing world. Around the new year I started a piece on new year’s resolutions and how we, as a society, are doing them wrong. As I reread it, it appears I came across like a parent scolding their child for doing something wrong. Upon that realization, I tossed it out because, while it may be easy to edit words, it is difficult to change the tone of a writing completely.  Since then, I have picked up and put down my laptop so many times; I have lost count. Even though I started writing in earnest last year, there is still something intimidating about the process. Perhaps I never quite got my sea legs. Maybe the thought of trying to accomplish NaNoWriMo freaked me out and stalled my drive to put word to page.  Who knows? All I know is this site has laid barren for a few months. It’s time to change that.

The site has not laid dormant in the months of silence.  I have been doing work behind the scenes. Dear readers, you may have noticed a category missing from the front page. I have removed, at least for now, the daily article category. While I like the idea of writing daily and publishing the end product. The project was a little ambitious for someone just returning to the writing world. In time, I’m sure the category will return. Even now, as I am writing my first article in a few months, I am remembering how much I enjoy writing; the catharsis of the activity. For now though, daily writing is a little overwhelming. Fear not, published works will come.

The above most obvious change to the site. It is, however, not the only change. The other change hopefully went unnoticed. Any “under the hood” work is hopefully never noticed but, it is still worth mentioning. After much research, I have changed hosting company’s for my website. I had been looking to move away from my previous host for a variety of reasons. Chief among these reasons was because it seemed like my website loaded painfully slow compared to other sites. Since switching hosts, I have noticed a difference in how fast my website loads, for the better. While I have not been with my current web host long, things are looking promising. I hope that this switch will make for a more positive experience overall. When I take on a project, I try to make it appear as professional as I can. It’s why I commissioned a friend to redesign Active Musing a while ago. It’s why I switched web hosting services. It’s the small, sometimes unnoticeable changes, that can have a great impact.

With all the behind-the-scenes stuff done or in process, I do not have an excuse to leave this site barren. All that is needed is motivation.  Besides my enjoyment of writing, one of my biggest motivators to sit down in this recliner, open my laptop, and make words appear on the screen is my mother. Seriously.  Many people don’t realize I wasn’t the first person in my family to start a blog. My mother trail blazed that road in 2005 with writings based on observations she had while interacting and raising Labrador retrievers. The blog was titled Labtails and ran until 2012, when she stepped away from writing for a variety of reasons. In the last few weeks she has returned to blogging with a different focus. It is a joy to see my mother write again. I believe I inherited her knack and talent for writing from her.

Another motivation comes in the form of feedback I have received for Darkness. I have shown this work to a variety of people over the last few months. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. One of the common themes in feedback has been how I told the story. I didn’t tell the readers what was happening. I showed them, giving just enough detail to allow their imaginations to play. It has been encouraging to see people reactions to something my mind came up with in a weekend. I enjoyed the process. I enjoyed telling the story. There will be more.

Till Next We Meet.