Confession from a Novice Blogger

Hey, pssst, you regular bloggers out there … why didn’t you tell me this stuff was addicting?

A few years ago, my writer’s critique group told me I needed a blog to help promote my writing endeavors. I’m not super computer savvy and knew it would take me not hours, not days, but weeks to figure out how to create one. I put it off, until I could do so no longer.

Just this past December, during the week of Christmas, I got word that my short story anthology was being published on Christmas weekend. So, I quickly took a peek at WordPress and put together the simplest, most basic blog I could muster.

What’s this? An email from WordPress? Somebody “liked” me? How does that work?

Yep, I had no clue. Sure, I’d been on facebook, but blogging is a whole different ball game. I didn’t know somebody could like me on blogs too.

My eyes widened at every new, informative window that popped up. Woe! What is this page with all the bars? Oh, cool … that’s the amount of clicks to my blog. What are all these stats? My mouth fell wide open and my eyes dried out from staring at the screen.

I can put up links and photos? I can add more pages? Click, click, click. Before I knew it, I had added several pages. There goes my basic blog.

First comments came from two wonderful friends, but they figured out how to comment before I ever did. How do I reply? Yes, you can see, I eventually figured that out too.

I’ll never forget my first comment from someone who was not a relative. Woo hoo! I moved my mouse over her gravatar and … viola! What the heck is this mini-window? I clicked, and it opened to a beautiful photo of a beagle in the snow, and happiness! I don’t know where Michelle has been lately, but it was fun discovering her blog The Happy 366 and so many others.

What does this mean … somebody followed me? Like magic, a message dinged into my email box to answer that question. Plus, I could follow them too!

Why didn’t somebody warn me that my writing would take a back seat to this stuff? My poor, poor neglected, very first fiction novel is lying in wait for its characters to spring back to action. My writer’s group is frustrated with me, I left them at a cliff hanger. Will Meg cheat on her husband? I still don’t know myself. I haven’t gotten to it yet.

Right now I cut back to three posts a week, but there are so many great blogs that I follow. How can I miss out on reading those? Dang! I’ve got to get back to my writing.

I’ve been blogging for two months and consider myself a novice. I still don’t understand how everything works. I’ve been to the help pages too. Can someone explain a pingback better than the help page?

Hello, my name is Lori, and I’m a blog-aholic.

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