Entertaining the Next Chapter and Why This Is the Last Blog Post
Once upon a time, there was a little girl who grew up in a city where she got bullied and began confiding in a diary she purchased in a charming gift store. The girl soon discovered that she loved sharing thoughts on paper and dreamed of one day becoming a freelance writer.
Then a villain by the name of Fear sneaked in and, despite encouragement from her literary teachers toward a writing career, led the girl in a different direction. Fear manifested itself at different times and under various forms, boiling down to Fear of Rejection and Fear of Failure.
Years passed, and the girl grew up, appreciating the reserved and cozy life provided by Fear’s protection.
The Dream
Suddenly, a life-altering circumstance called Pandemic shook the woman’s life and brought her little girl’s dream back to the surface. The woman pondered the end of her life and realized that the regret she’d face down the road of never trying, was likely to hurt more than the remorse she’d risk in opening up.
Scared, yet determined and passionate for this predestined new chapter, she faced Fear and launched a blog on her dad’s birthday where she began to share inspiring personal stories. To her great surprise, the woman found that her writing pleased many readers; grateful, she gained confidence as a late-blooming writer.
The woman had fun and learned a great deal through her new venture. She wrote blog post stories enthusiastically and got to know blogging players like Marketing, Search Engines and more.
Eventually, however, like some had warned her, she found out that blogging was not just about writing: it was a lot of work.
The Life
Several months into her new blogging life, Marketing began eroding the woman’s creativity with back-end considerations, like keywords and metadata, needed to please an important contender referred to as Google.
Marketing also had a protégé named Promotion, who mostly hung out on a field known as Social Media, where one needs to dodge many balls while trying to follow the erratic rules of a time-consuming game overseen by a referee called Algorithm.
Sadly, this game slowly turned into a chore that not only gnawed at the woman’s passion for writing but also took her away from other important parts of her life, like tending to her bread-and-butter business and spending time with loved ones.
The Question
During the following months, the woman’s interest in her blog venture went down. She wrote fewer blog posts and went quiet, making room for conversations with her friends Soul and Authenticity.
“Should I end the blog?” she asked them. “I put so much into it. And subscribers await.”
“What does your heart say?” asked Authenticity.
“Maybe the blog has served its purpose,” Soul hinted. “Did it fulfill your dream?”
Like her father had taught her, the woman checked her premises and revisited her little girl’s dream of becoming a freelance writer…and remembered it had sprouted from a wish to contribute to magazines and newspapers.
While the blog helped the woman open up with her writing, perhaps it was a stepping stone in working through Fear. Was knocking on a publisher’s door the next step? Maybe it was time to face Fear on another level and serve readers from a different outlet.
The Next Chapter
After much time and reflection, the woman opted to transition into her next chapter with one last blog post and then return to the joy of writing in her spare time. She pondered working on a book when she retires, until then submitting short stories as time allows to various publications for consideration.
Soul felt in alignment with this decision and Fear looked forward to the next challenge.
Search Engines, Promotion and other blogging players moved on to new endeavors, having lots of fun with Marketing teams.
Authenticity, also pleased with the outcome, reminded the woman that being true to herself is central to any next chapter in life.
And they lived happily ever after.
A note from Jo
As I published this last blog post today, I also submitted a story to a national newspaper for consideration 🤞 Stay tuned as I’ll be sure to provide a link to it on this website, should it be accepted, along with any others that follow.
If you’ve signed up to be notified of the next story (thank you) you’ll find out right away and receive the link in your inbox.
With thanks and immense gratitude for following along this journey.
Sincerely,
Jo
