I have a confession to make.  When I started this blog, I was all business-like.  I made an editorial calendar, and wrote down what I was going to post and when.  I made plans.  I’ve got a really scrummy notebook full of notes on what I am going to write for you.  I researched it all for months.

Because this is what you do.

Professional.  Business-like.

All the things I am not.

It was a huge emotional step to start the site.  It took months to work up the courage to put myself ‘out there’, and I guess you could say that a lot of the research I did was just procrastination – I can’t do it till I know all about x.  And then, when I did it, and go it going, I wondered what the fuss had been all about.

And then the SHOULDs came home to roost.

You do what you think you ought to do, and then somewhere along the way it becomes a chore, a SHOULD.  The only SHOULD there is right now is this one:  I SHOULD have known.  Because if there is one thing I have learnt about myself in this life, its this:

Nothing gets done if it ain’t fun.

I missed my ‘Journal Friday’ post last week, partly because life caught up with me, partly because I was not well (long story), and partly because I realised that it had become a SHOULD, and I didn’t know what to do about it.  And then I found this, my Vision Statement for the site:

“The purpose of Evenlodesfriend.com is:

• To empower other people to improve their writing, to enjoy and rejoice in their own creativity, and to claim their lives as writers regardless of whether they have been published or not.

• To promote the idea of writing as a healing process and a psychological tool for wellbeing that anyone can use – and to give readers the confidence to use it.

• To bring my own writing to others for their enjoyment, for my own voice and independence.”

And it occurred to me that I need to take this as seriously for myself as I would for you.  Which means recognising that part of my creativity is spontaneous outflowing.  Something from the Heart.  My Heart.

So sometimes I plan to break out of the editorial calendar and spread my wings a bit.  Sometimes I will share with you about how my writing is going, what problems I am up against, ideas that I have come across, things I am interested in.  I hope that you will get to know me better (and I know I will get to know me better!).  I hope that you will know I am going through the same struggles as you are.  We are all in this Creativity Boat together. (Actually, I may need to do a cartoon on that, possibly with owls and pussycats included!)

So welcome to a new phase at Evenlodesfriend.  You will get your Monday, Wednesday and Friday posts, I promise.  But I hope you will get a bit more, maybe a bit of reality too.

With all my love and Best Wishes,

Evenlode’s Friend.