One of my targets for the next several months is to get better at writing. Well, no – not just better,  but also more consistent. Because even though my biggest passion is writing, I fail to do it more often than not. Which is not good considering one of my many dreams is to be a best selling author someday.

There are a couple of writing competitions I’m planning to enter. One ends the 31st of March. I’m not sure I’ll make the deadline but I’m going to give it one helluva try. And the best part is – I get to do it on my sweet new iMac!

Well, it’s not new – just new to me. A friend of mine wanted a MacBook Pro laptop which is what I’ve had for the past 4 years. He called me about it a couple weeks ago and asked me to help him find a good used one for around $700-$800. So, I looked and found most of them were going for more than that but that iMac’s were going for around $700. I’d been considering returning to a desktop because I rarely actually took my laptop anywhere. So I made a proposal to my friend – buy me an iMac and I’ll give you my MacBook Pro.

So, last Sunday, that’s exactly what we did. We went and bought me a used iMac with almost the exact specs of my MBP – just a little bigger hard drive and more RAM – and brought it home. I transferred all my files and settings to the iMac and cleared out the MBP for him. And we’re both happy campers! Although this iMac is one of the smaller ones – a 20″ – It’s vastly bigger than the 15 inches of screen real estate I’m used to. It’s been a pleasure working on designs and writing on this big screen! And I’m finding it’s good motivation for getting things done. I can open things side by side and see everything. Very nice indeed!

But anyway, back to the writing thing – I find that it’s simply easier to work on a bigger screen. Now I know why Apple is always making bigger screens. One of their current iMac sizes is 27″. I remember when my 17 year old was a baby, our TV was 27″ and the computer monitor was 14! And THAT was big! LOL

Ok . . . back to the writing thing for real this time! LOL (I’m just excited about my new computer.)

When I started journaling again a few months ago, I started using actual, physical notebooks – Moleskine’s, to be exact. I haven’t written with pen and paper in that capacity for years. And I’m finding it liberating. I’m finding my voice again. And that’s what I’m seriously excited about!

To be honest with you, sharing my writing with the world scares the living crap out of me. It’s deeply personal, even works of fiction. As the premise goes, writing often reveals more about the writer than the reader or the story itself.

Like I wrote in my journal, I always think of writing as something incredibly profound and immensely personal. It’s the blood and the soul and the aftermath of a thousand thoughts all colliding, competing for ones attention. It’s a sketch of something building into a powerful calling, a lasting testament to something deeper than your own Self.

And that’s why sharing it with anyone else has always been so hard for me.

But I aim to change that. Because I *do* want to share it with the world.

It’s going to take a lot of courage to get beyond the fears of letting my work out there, to be seen and read and loved and hated by people I don’t even know. People I will never know. But . . .

That’s why it’s a leap, right?

So here’s to writing . . . and leaping!

Until next time . . . keep blazin’!