Goodbye but Hello

Zestful Blog Post #300

Before I get into this post, I want you to know I’ll be teaching online this coming Saturday, January 26, in the Writer's Digest Virtual Conference for Novelists. Mine is the kickoff slot, at 1 p.m. My one-hour presentation will be “Supercharge Your Plot.” This is the earliest notice I can give, which I know isn’t much. But we’ll have a good time, so consider joining me and the other fine presenters. I might also note that Royal Caribbean canceled the sail date of the mystery-writing / forensics cruise I was so excited about, due to mechanical issues with the ship and drydock conflicts. But we’re hoping to reschedule that trip, again in partnership with Royal Caribbean and GoTravel.

On to today’s business.

I’ve been blogging weekly for almost six years now, ever since You’ve Got a Book in You launched. And I’ve been thinking of taking a break, or ending the blog permanently. One’s life has seasons. I feel the need to spend more time creating other stuff, doing different things. And as I watched post #300 approach, I thought such a nice round number would be a good place to conclude, or at least pause, this blog. Zestful Writing has led to a lot of cool interactions, both in the comments section and via email, and I’ll miss that. Writing a weekly essay also makes you come up with ideas, think through your points and support them, and write as clearly and concisely as you can. That’s been valuable.

But thinking up a weekly post, writing it, making a photograph or sketch (or finding a free image on line), cropping and editing that image, uploading the whole thing and responding to comments—all that takes up my writing time and energy for a day per week. That’s a pretty big commitment. I intend to make a book from the best of these posts, after I get through some more projects.

Which, yeah. Having given a lot of consideration to the questions I posed in last week’s post (Zestful Blog Post 299), I know I need to write more books at a brisker pace. Need to explore my fictional worlds further, and invent new ones. I want to write more nonfiction, including more good stuff for writers, and I want to teach more workshops, both in person and online. I need to simplify things where I can. As I’ve noted here before, one’s time is a zero-sum game, and our days on this earth are finite. If you know what your mission is, it’s a sin not to serve that mission. I intend to put out my newschats a bit more frequently, so if you’d like to keep up with me and all forthcoming work, please be sure you’re on that list, which is a different list from this blog. Sign up HERE.

I guess one should never say never, so who knows but what I might start this blog up again someday. But for now, farewell. Do stay tuned via the newschat, because I want to keep in touch with you. After all, you’re why I’m here.

Love,

Elizabeth

What do you think? To post, click below where it says, ‘No Comments,’ or ‘2 Comments,’ or whatever. If you’re having trouble leaving comments on this or other blogs, it’s probably because third-party cookies have been turned off in your browser. Go into your browser settings and see if that’s the case. Then turn them on again in order to leave comments. [Photo by ES]