So What? Why Now?

I know writers…lots of them.  They are friends and colleagues, not just names on a printed page. They write newspaper articles, books, speeches, columns, blogs, you name it, in high profile venues. Their topics range from philanthropy to sports to health to family.  My favorites (and you know who you are) write on deadlines that I can’t imagine.  But they do it and I still get a thrill when I see a byline or new posting from one of them.

So, you can see my reluctance in starting my own blog and making it available online.  What if somebody reads it?!?  What if I have no “voice” after years of talking about its importance? What if? What if?

Long ago, I worked with gifted students and creative writing was one of the classes I taught.  Donald Graves and William Zinnser were two resources I used in that class and our (yes, I wrote when my students did) journals were early precursors of today’s blogosphere.  I wrote medical update emails for almost four years to keep family and friends updated on the Collins’ health saga.  More recently, I’m enamored by Roy Peter Clark of the Poynter Institute and I get a daily email from Grammar Girl.  Colleagues know me as the “cranky old English teacher” who is distracted/outraged by run-on sentences, misplaced commas, and egregious use of it’s vs. its and a lot as one word rather than two. 

Yet, in January 2011, I’m embarking on a new adventure that I’m calling Cheryl v.3.0.  I can’t advise others on effective use of communications for building relationships if I’m not experimenting with lots of different tools myself.  Well, I could, but that would be disingenuous.

I’m a big believer in the “conversations on paper” approach to writing and know that any “voice” I acquire will be enhanced through your participation.  Chances are high that I’ll never hit the NY Times bestseller list, the pages of USA TODAY, or a Twitterstream with 300K followers.  But I can walk my talk, so I’m taking a deep breath and pressing the publish button…here goes.