Last week when I shared some photos from my time in Southwestern Minnesota, I realized that was my 50th post, which prompted me to reflect on why I write posts in the first place.
For any writer, it’s beneficial to regularly reflect on the why: Why am I writing this story draft? Revising this poem? Mulling over this blog post? Moreover, there is the need to reflect on the bigger WHY: why am I choosing to write rather than pursue other interests?
I began this website in 2010, but from that time through 2013, I wrote only 16 posts. From January 2014 to the present, I’ve written 38 posts, and 23 this year already. (Okay, so I enjoy numbers and statistics.) Numbers here, however, need some contextualization. What has changed in the last 20 months?
At the beginning of 2014 I made the decision to write more in this space, that decision coinciding with the publication of my poetry chapbook, Four Seasons West of the 95th Meridian. I wanted to offer more content here, as well as to promote my published writing. Friends and family read what I post, so I thought I would offer them more to read. Lastly, I was inspired by several writing friends who write posts regularly. (Shortening the domain name to plainswriter.com was an added incentive since doing so was not free.)
My posts are not the poems, short stories, and creative nonfiction pieces I am regularly writing and revising. Those reside in their own places, but I needed another venue beyond the jottings in a notebook. As an addendum to the previous paragraph, I use this space to try out ideas, to share thoughts about my interests. In all my years writing, I’ve learned (among other lessons) that writing feeds more writing, and that a post might morph/transform into an extended piece at some later date, or perhaps suggest some other piece to write.
I now view my posts as weekly columns, although I don’t tend to write about “big” issues or “hot-button” topics. Although I don’t offer my words on such topics, I do want to make sure that I’m not offering more “noise” to an Internet already full of it. I hope that what I write, even if it’s 500 words on some topic, will resonate with readers in some way(s).
So thanks for reading and following me, and I hope that what you read in the next 50 posts will be meaningful to you, will provide a diversion, will encourage reflection, will maybe simply even entertain you.
Plainswriter 