Here Comes Your Brand New Day!

We interrupt this riveting artist backstory to address a glaring omission:

In my efforts to compress the last five months of personal growth into a few hundred words, I left out some details. I know, right? Imagine! I realize now that I make sharing my work sound like it was easy. Like posting it online for people to see was no big deal. In reality I psyched myself up to post that first picture again & again, but I kept chickening out.

Nobody is paying attention!

Just send the tweet!

On the fifth try, I finally did.

After that, it got a little easier. I still occasionally had to tell myself that no one was paying attention to me, but I’ve got to the point where – in spite of my nerves – I do enjoy sharing my pictures & facts. Sometimes people even share more facts in the comments, I love it! Everyone is so nice that I kind of forgot how nervous I had been…

… until our beloved dotArt Curator started this WriteFreely instance.

I started this blog by getting writer’s block for several weeks. I ended up doing a few different polls on Mastodon. (please vote on my polls, they really help me focus!) I changed the title from “blog 1” (intending to count up) to “blog 52” (so now I count down) & somehow that helped, too. I wrote a basic introduction, then started the old familiar song & dance.

Nobody is paying attention!

Just post the blog!

On the third try, I finally did.

Nine people read my first blog! Nine! I was flabbergasted. Maybe a few of those people clicked the link by accident, but at least one or two had to have done it intentionally. Fully jazzed up, I wrote the next entries back to back. It is a two-parter. Three hundred & nineteen people read part 1.

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It’s good that part 2 was already written, because I was officially intimidated by those numbers. I was so nervous when I posted part 2, I used the wrong title card! I haven’t allowed myself to see how many people have read part 2. Whether those numbers go up or down, I’m worried they would impact my ability to write this entry. It’s something I’m working on. Typing this out has helped.

& now, my thrilling conclusion:

Share your work! Share it with everyone! Tell your imposter syndrome to go pound sand! & maybe – just maybe – find a better mantra than “nobody is paying attention” so you won’t be blindsided if people actually do!

Karin Wanderer Learns