Patterns in my behaviour.

Radar’s fluorescent orange coat even glows in black and white.

There is clearly a bit of a theme here. I blog about how I haven't blogged in several days. I talk about how I'm going to get better at it the coming week. I post it. Then I write another blog post the following day. And then I fall off the wagon again and repeat the process over again while feeling guilty about it.

I'm considering a few things:

  1. Go back to actual daily blogging, 7 days a week.

  2. Sit down and power through a whole bunch of different posts all at once and schedule them to post one per day.

  3. Dedicate an hour every weekday to working on a blog post.

I've been struggling with anxiety regarding my writing skills lately. I've felt like my skills and knowledge of the technical aspects of English grammar are lacking.

Sure, I can write and it is fairly readable. I can speak and people understand, at the very least, some amount of what I say. But I went through school in a time when the actual mechanics of grammar were not the focus of Language Arts. I think the theory was that we'd all learn it just by reading, listening, and speaking to each other. Which is somewhat true, as mentioned above, I appear to be fully capable of speaking and writing. But, my ability to actually label the parts of my writing that are incorrect is weaker than I'd like it to be. So, I've been studying up. I'm carrying my copy of Strunk & White's Elements of Style and reading it whenever I'm waiting for something. I've been googling various grammar rules. And, I've been asking my sister for help with my practice work.

I'm hoping to really deepen my understanding of how English grammar works so I can be a better writer and editor. Hopefully, soon I'll regain some confidence in my skills and feel less anxious about blogging regularly again.

In case you're wondering, the 3rd option above is probably the most practical one. Although I'll probably start with less than an hour. Thinking about dedicating an entire hour every day is a bit overwhelming, so I'm going to start with 15 minutes per day. More than likely it will turn into more than 15 minutes once I get stuck in.

Thanks for sticking around, my apologies for the radio silence recently.