Ruth’s Resolution

I plan to make some changes to my posting on this blog.  Usually when I write here it’s because of something I’ve seen and photographed.  Readers tell me they appreciate my chronicle of what’s happening in central Christchurch.  If nothing inspires me I don’t write, and that’s okay.  My poetry group provides a fortnightly theme which sometimes gives me material for a blog post.  Lately I’ve felt my writing’s gone stale and needs a change.  For more than twelve years I’ve been writing mainly about what I’ve observed and experienced.  A very few of my 1495 followers leave comments (thank you!).  Often there is more reaction from friends on Facebook than on the blog.  My average daily views for the whole of 2018 is 38, compared to 49 in 2017, even though I’ve gained 70 new followers this year.  I enjoy blogging, especially the contact it gives me with those readers who respond.

My New Year resolution is to experiment with writing first, and illustrating afterwards, rather than starting with a photo.  Lately I’ve experimented with illustrating some posts with flat lay photos, which are creatively satisfying.  My writing in the last few months has been mainly poems, and I plan to try more prose, probably still ending with a rhyming couplet (because I enjoy them).  I also plan to write on paper first, rather than straight on computer, as I think that allows more creativity and thought.  I have a book of writing prompts 642 Things to Write About, which I sometimes use to spark ideas, and I have daringly decided that I will actually start writing on its pages.  This seems almost sacrilegious, but it’s what the book’s intended for.  I will try to follow one prompt every day.

It’s impossible difficult to take a selfie of me writing because I use my left hand for both pen and camera.

‘I trust my readers are agog
anticipating my changed blog.’