I Carry It Around In My Heart - Revisited

This was originally posted in March 2010 – but it still rings true today.

I bet many of you already know to what I’m referring.  I’ve read it in your blogs, gathered as much from the comments you’ve left here.  It’s a feeling that’s almost indescribable, and I’m worried that I might fall on my face trying to communicate what it is.  It’s always with you, but there are certain times when that wave of euphoria gushes from within and promises to lift you above the everyday.   If scientist discovered a way to harvest it and turn it into a drug, entire cities would grind to a halt as the number of overdoses reached epidemic proportions.

Do you know what I’m describing?  That’s right.  The feeling a writer gets when he knows he’s written something that has significance.  A piece of your work that has successfully toyed with a readers emotions in some way.  Maybe it’s a simple blog post that elicits a deluge of comments, a short story that causes your best friend to laugh uncontrollably, a poem that opens the tear ducts, or a novel that when a reader finishes elicits a deep and lingering sigh. A writer who has experienced something like this, on any level, never forgets what it feels like and is always searching for ways to re-create it.  Does anybody know of which I speak?

I use that feeling like a shot of adrenaline sometimes, when the world is doing its best to bring me down.  I’ll draw upon memories of praise from my awesome critique partners.  I think about my blog followers, those talented fellow writers who have linked themselves to me, and I to them.  I fall asleep at night with a smile on my face, recalling a recently written scene in my current WIP, imagining how my wife will react when she reads it for the first time.  

For me, this blog is the origin.  Everything I have accomplished so far stems from here, and from you.  My first baby-steps into fiction writing started here.  I have met, become friends with, and collaborated with, some truly amazing writers…and individuals, all from here.  My journey is just beginning, but I am confident that my foundation is a solid one.

I reached the 200 follower milestone last Friday.  Honestly, it kind of snuck up on me.  Not that I wasn’t paying attention to the newly arrived, because nothing could be further from the truth, I just didn’t notice the number.  Originally, I planned to throw another celebration to mark the event, but I have since thought differently.  I wrote when I celebrated the Mighty 100 that I wanted to focus more on generating content that would increase the number of comments left by the “like-minded”, and if I did that the followers would take care of itself.  If you build it…they will come. I’m going to continue on with that philosophy.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to try throw a little entertainment your way.  And if I hit a chord, please let me know.  It doesn’t matter if you’re the first commenter, or the 50^th, they all contribute to that feeling we writers thrive off.

They say the home is where the heart is.  In my case, this blog is my home…and I carry it around in my heart.