Blog or Mlog?
Deciding to start up my own(ish) website as a semi new author I thought would be daunting at first. In actuality it was just confusing. However, knowing that I would eventually need a website someday, I wanted to make sure I could blog freely from it. So here we are. But, why? I was wondering this too this morning while sipping my coffee because this first blog post was not preplanned. I find sometimes I do best or feel the best about what I put out there when I “wing it”. With no idea where I was going to go with this I said good morning to my liquid comrade and sat down (after figuring out which buttons to click to even get here) to start spilling the beans if you will on what my blogs will be and why.
First off I wanted to pull myself away from regular social media. I use Facebook often, this last year I have navigated Twitter and Instagram consistently for the first time, and just in the last few months I’ve added TikTok and Tumblr to that list as well as learning about other resources such as Discord, Patreon, and Buy Me A Coffee. I decided I needed a website to keep all of my content in one central location as well as decided I wanted to try blogging. There are many options out there and for now I have settled on WordPress where I can do both. While I am vocal on Facebook from a blogging standpoint it also is a huge time suck. You know, the mindless scrolling! Blogging here, a more “formal” way to blog, I know will be more productive, at least on my end.
What is the point though in blogging? For me it is really part of who I am and who I want to be. I am a writer and I want to be a Writer. Know the difference? I am grateful to say that I have two publications out there in the “real world” but I’m also overwhelmed by what’s to come. The idea of having “writer” as a job title brings mixed emotions; Dream Job and Dead-end Job. I’m in middle of a four-part publication and I have almost a three year plan in my head of other projects. One of those projects is a collection of memoir essays of some sort. There is that seed of doubt nagging at me and cooling my coffee before I get to it saying You are a nobody, you have to be Somebody to write a memoir! However I have learned so much from my fellow “nobodies” to know that we are all Somebodies who deserve to share our story. Too cliché? Oh, well. I’m going to write it anyways. I am a huge advocate for sharing your story. Too many of us are too quiet, we don’t want to take up space in the universe, or do not think we are worthy. But reader, we both know that we are worthy of space, time, and if you’re able to – to be able to sling some words together.
In preparation for this memoir project I know I need to get comfortable sharing my verbal skin with the world, even more so than I already am, and also in a way that is more formal than social media yet still approachable and conversational. Wahhhlaahhhh blogging! While I do plan to blog about my writing process, meaning behind some of my poetry, and info and plot ideas for future work, I also plan to use this platform to prep for that memoir collection. Since blogging is like a public journal in many aspects it is fitting that for me it will at times mirror a memoirish log or a Mlog. You all will be a part of the very internal, soul searching, and deeply personal research it takes to put into a memoir, plus you’ll get an inside peek into other aspects of my writing life. Maybe even some poetic blogs… Plogs?
Well, my coffee cup is empty. Literally. Figuratively it is not, one blog down. Thank you for being apart of it. Hope you return for a second cup. Morning, Coffee, thanks for soothing my groggy soul and helping me find a few words today.
-Elizabeth Ridge
“…Dive deep in solitude / Swim to the bottom of the barely clean mug / I’d find Her / Give Her a hug / Pull Her to shore / Like I’ve done the mornings before…”
Mug of a Woman, upcoming collection Dandelion Picking, Elizabeth Ridge
Elizabeth Ridge Writer 
Awww so cute!
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