Reluctant but Ravenous Guest Blogger

By guest blogger Catherine Greti

I’m in the last module of the Fear of Writing graduate course and facing an assignment that asks me to be a guest blogger on the FoW blog. That’s Milli—helping us push past our limits again! I’m just getting comfortable with my own blogging site, and that was created only so I didn’t fall into the category of prehistoric animal.

I’m an early adopter in a lot of ways, but blogging wasn’t one of them. I used to consider it a lot of stuff and nonsense. A good excuse for being afraid I had nothing to say and being shy about saying it if I did. Speak up in public? Where anyone on the planet can see it? I didn’t think so!

Early last summer was when I began creative writing with any seriousness. I had never considered writing a story to the finish—my interests were collage, photography, cooking—but now I have 15 short stories that I love under my belt. An assignment in FoW even helped me to call myself a writer. At first I had to wrangle with it, though.

Calling myself a writer helped to put me in the mood to blog. I always liked diary journaling and blogs lend well to that. So in September I started my own blog. I didn’t invite anyone. I posted like I was posting for my friends, and showed only a few.

By January 28 this year I was ready to do a makeover—take my blog to the next level, invite the world. (Did I really just say that?) I went into hyper mode. I did a complete makeover on my blog, wrote two short stories for my grad course, AND turned my outdated photography website into a blog as well.

I was ravenous. 3 weeks x 7 days a week I worked till whichever came first—exhaustion, or my husband walking up to me with a glass of wine saying, “STOP! Let’s watch a movie.”

Feb 17th I said “Enough makeover!” and made a post pretending I was launching for 1,000 viewers. I’m all fired up! I sign up with MailChimp and add the Subscribe button. I’m readying my newsletter template. I’m thinking of future posts. And then . . .

. . . I move to the last module in my grad course. “Write for the FoW Blog.” Wait! It’s just an invitation. “Would you like to be a guest blogger?” Sure, next year! And not for a blog where writers are! They’ll pick me apart! I’ll be carrion lying at the side of my Macbook slobbering by the time they finish laughing at me!

RELUCTANCE? You bet! I was wringing my hands figuring a way to skirt this issue when Milli’s email shows up asking when can she schedule my guest blog post.

OK, I did the 15 stories, I did the “I’m a Writer” therapy and I did the blog, reluctantly, but hey, every darn time, I became ravenous. After all, she’s going to show up, that pesky Milli, and insist . . . I can do it!

——-

Catherine Greti has lived in the California Bay Area for the past 15 years. Having only recently had exposure to creative writing training, which provided “fertile material” that opened doors in her mind that she had mostly ignored, she is enamored, enchanted and in awe of what happens when she sits down to write a story . . . still pinching herself and feeling lucky. You can find some of her musings at purple kangaroos.