Confessions of an addict, part 1

My name’s Janet and I’m an addict.

It began innocently enough just over four years ago.  It wasn’t my fault.  My husband and younger daughter are to blame.  They told me, “You love to write.  You’ll love blogging You’ll be good at it.”  After a time, I took the plunge, soldiering through the process of actually setting up my blog.  The last step (as my muddled mind recalls) was to enter the name of my blog.  Name?  I’m supposed to have a name?  Not wanting to start the process again, I decided on something to cover all bases:  “This, that, and the other thing.”  The first step down the road to addiction was taken.

Initially, I wrote…about this, that, and the other thing.  I reveled in the first non-family person to “like” one of my blog posts and the first to hit “follow.”  I sourced my few photos online (with attribution), until I realized that it was difficult to find some that I knew were available for use and weren’t going to infringe on someone else’s work.  Even free clip art isn’t always free (go figure) and any photos I wanted to use, I didn’t unless I asked permission.

Then I got an iPhone and a digital SLR and things changed again.

I discovered how easy it was to use my own photos. I discovered challenges,both writing and photographic, a great way to meet bloggers and get people to visit your blog.  BUT (and as you can see, that’s a big “but”), you have to be prepared to visit lots of other blogs, which is fun, but also time-consuming.  Eventually I discovered editing apps for my photos and another addiction was truly enabled.

And I discovered something I really love:  meeting and talking with new people, people all over the world, with no long-distance costs.  I experienced the joy of meeting some of these people in person.  I discovered that I was blogging every day and couldn’t imagine missing a day, even when it felt overwhelming, when I struggled to keep up with all the blogs I followed.  I discovered my blogging time was sometimes fighting with time for  real life.

I’m addicted to blogging.
I fight to keep control of blogging, rather than letting it control me.
It’s an ongoing battle, one I fight each day to win.