What a wonderful tip! Definitely will be keeping that one in mind… I love this whole series, thanks for taking the time to share it with us!

Laurie | Your Ill-fitting Overcoats last blog post..28 Things I Hate About You (My Dashboard Confessional)

I just wanted to say that discovering your blog was the catalyst for me to finally start giving myself a break and letting myself rest this year. You’ve also helped me to start recognising what I *actually* need and want, rather than what I *think* I need and want or what I think I *should* need and want. Thank you for that.

I’m really looking forward to using your techniques – as well as non-sucky yoga – to clear out some of the glub-glub I told you about in my weirdy beardy email. I think even just telling you about the glub-glub theory has made it easier for me to recognise it and get rid of it.

Thanks for helping me make my self a tiny bit more fluent this year! Much love to you and Selma.

Chloes last blog post..Death to 2008

Everyone run over to Diane’s blog (sweet Diane, who probably regrets the fact that she will now — forever be known as the Milk Duds lady) and cheer her on. It’s full of all kinds of wonderfulness.

She’s at OutdrivingMyHeadlights.com. Really good stuff. Talk about a voice. She’s got one. Go leave her some comments!

Oh, and @Chris? Your comment hit me straight in the funny bone for some reason and I’m still giggling. And I’m delighted that you feel safe here to be your goofball self.

Everyone else? Chris Zydel is a TOTAL goofball and one of the most all-around fun people I know.

More to come. My gentleman friend just yelled FOODS! And I must heed the call.

xo

ok bad joke.

The funny thing is, when I let go of the question…”What should I write today?”…and the panic subsides and I just sorta “pound the keys” generally (not always) a post-able page comes out….my voice can’t spell or edit worth a damn, but it’s getting better.

Sometimes I think…geez to I even want to do this? Is this really fun for me? Sometimes it is, sometimes it’s not. So I have decided to give it two more years (or so) and if I still don’t like it, then I’ll find something else to do.

Now, I really like building buzz on forums on blogs (opps you caught me!) more than content creation…a couple of times this buzz building has inspired a page or two, and has created a bump in traffic and inbound links.

So whenever I just don’t feel like writing, I will still write…even if I write…today, I don’t feel like writing, so I will go build some buzz…this works for now.

THANKS for being you and letting me share your you-ness and your duck.

Love, Feed, Serve.

Yes, I was also moved and startled by the suggestion to write your posts as if you are writing to someone that you love. It’s just so OBVIOUS that that would be a really good idea but it never occurred to me before. At least not in that way. But now it’s like DUH….(said to myself in the kindest, most self loving way).

I think that part of your genius is being able to articulate things that we already know for ourselves but just haven’t gotten around to saying out loud. And then YOU say it out loud. And It’s like remembering something that I never really forgot in the first place!

Oh my god, but does that make any sense at all??? I have a really bad cold right now and I think that my brains are all scrambled up with icky, drippy stuff.

Anyway, I have a little confession to make. This whole blogging thing is also very new to me. I have a blog but I have been mainly using it to store my monthly newsletter articles ( which I hope aren’t TOO personal development preachy). I haven’t really been part of the blogging community but I’m dipping my toe in a bit now, using a lot of what I’m learning from you to ( Ahem) MIDWIFE my blog.

However, I am still mostly using my blog for my newsletter articles . And although I am practicing being more transparent and vulnerable in those writings ( which is scary and good) my confession is that where I am REALLY practicing letting my real, uncensored, goofy, playful, wise, tender hearted self come out is here in the comments section of your blog!!!

Because I feel safe here. And I know that you and your tribe of goofy, wise, tender hearted folks appreciates the humanity and realness. And I get to be out there, but not totally, completely yet in an official way on my own blog. It’s like blogging training wheels.

OK….. So, now…. Am I really going to post this thing? Yes, I think I will.

What have I got to lose?

chris zydels last blog post..PAIN FREE CREATIVITY: YOU DON’T REALLY NEED TO SUFFER FOR YOUR ART

See, I started my own blog. (*Squealing* because now everyone will see me naked on the internets.)

One of my big problems with my writing is the stress I feel to impress everyone with my brilliance, cleverness, etc. Ick. But it’s a hurdle I have to get over every time I sit down at my computer, so I wanted practice writing authentically. Practice just being me, which sounds so ridiculous, except it’s not.

So, I started a blog, just for me, where I could talk about my writing and running my own business and how I’m so afraid most of the time that someone will catch on. And I’m SO excited/terrified about it, but it’s the right thing for me to do right now. And I wish all of Havi’s Blogging Therapy clients much luck with theirs. Send a link and I’ll come visit! Promise!

After 3 years, I’m still working on my blogging voice. I tend toward the preachy and worry that I’m too critical. These are real pitfalls! After all, I’m *supposed* to be the expert, right? I’m trying to help people, right?

Although in the beginning I didn’t shy away from talking about my own mistakes, it’s only recently (3 years later!) that I feel I’ve been able to open up and let my real voice come through. Thinking about that reader I want to support really helps.

Thanks for doing this, Havi!

Once again you come up with the perfectly timed post to address what I’ve been stressing about. I’m going to try the “writing to a friend” approach today and see if that gets me through my current stuck. Though I would ask this, as an extension: what if you don’t like the voice that’s emerging in your posts?

Today, the scariness seemed to fade away, for whatever reason, and I have been typing away and working on them.

I just started imagining and “talking through my typing” like I was talking to a friend or writing on a message board full of people that I have come to know. It’s really no different. The people that come to your blog are just friends you haven’t met yet. (That sounded a bit cheezy..lol)

A Grand New Year to You!