Writing shouldn’t be a chore. A blog of one’s own should not be thought of as ‘that thing I have to get done’. Really, it’s no fun to constantly be thinking that you have a project due for Monday morning (per the ghosts of school-days past). Writing is something that I very much enjoy. I find it to be an outlet, an expression, and certainly theraputic for one who tends to keep thoughts inside. I genuinly find writing to be pleasurable, and always have. And while I have had many deadlines before - with things needing to be done (as do we all) - the attempt at regularly writing my own blog posts has at times stumped me (creatively speaking).

Not wishing my own writing to ever become something merely perfunctory, I have decided to change things up a bit around here. I mean, how ridiculous would it be if writing my own blog actually did become a chore? I started this particular blog - about my home and garden - about my daily life as seen through the context of house, home, and nature because I wanted to tell a story. Living here at Elm Cottage has been a terrific joy and wonder. Trials and tribulations, for sure - but the house and the garden have always brought me back to a good place in the world, and that is what I wanted to share in my writing. And although very new to the blogging world, I think that I have made at least a faithful attempt at fulfulling my original intentions.

That said, I do find that something is missing. It’s not that I am unhappy or that this is really a chore, it’s just that I have so much more to say that I am trying to think of new ways to say things. As it has been a slow start to the year, I just want to shake things up a bit. I want to be able to not only write, but to better convey the thoughts within my head. While I still will be writing just as I always have, I also want to introduce a few new avenues that will better allow me to tell my story. Much will stay the same, as I am happy with what I have been doing, but since new ideas are constantly coming my way, I think that now is a good time to draw up a plan as to how I will continue.

For one thing, I am really not going to set any rules for myself (hear the refreshing sigh of relief?). As I said earlier, the idea of a ‘paper’ being due first thing Monday morning was not really the feeling that I had wished for when starting out on this new endeavor. Which leads me back to the ‘how-to-shake-things-up-a-bit’ question? And it’s not like I really want to rock the boat - I truthfully much more prefer calm waters - but I do want to let it wander from harbor to harbor at times, so to speak, in order to seek out new horizons. What I want to do now is to just introduce a few new elements, some new things that will help to not only boost my own creativity, but that will hopefully allow my readers a better understanding of my experience.

So, in summary, my writing will indeed continue in much the same way as I have been doing, but with perhaps a few tweaks, some alterations, and maybe some new additions. At times, I would like to make my blog post much more brief; a paragraph or two just to share a thought, as opposed to a lengthy group of successive thoughts. I am also going to, from time to time, post photographs only (with perhaps only the briefest of thoughts interspersed for good measure). I tried this once before, and very much like the way it came out. I may also actually delve deeper into particular subjects and write a blog post that is much longer than the fairly minimal ones that I have been writing (some subjects do in fact just require lengthy writing). Another thing under consideration for me is to include some fiction writing on my blog. I am not exactly sure what that would be at the moment (and that is all the fun of it!), but in my head I am thinking of some kind of a continuous story - perhaps in diary form - relating to life here at Elm Cottage - with fictional characters (people or perhaps animals, or both?). I suppose that only time will tell now, but I hope that all of you will continue to stay tuned in order to find out. The ride has just begun!

Until next time…