Keep busy, keep moving, don’t stop no matter what – No. Pace yourself. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is an author platform.

I’m in this for the long haul, and I often need to remind myself of why I’m really here.

The trap

I keep acting like I’m on a time limit. As if my life depends on churning out the next piece of “value” for an audience I’ve never met, and can’t even picture or identify clearly.

That isn’t why I set out to be an author or blogger.

I came here because I wanted to share my passion and journey with others. To find connection through a mutual love of stories. And to return the favor to all the online strangers who helped, dare I say, saved me through their writing.

I didn’t come here to get swallowed up in the trap of content creation for views. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of views would be lovely. But not at the cost of my creative passion, nor personal values.

Pace yourself, but keep moving forward

Pace yourself, but keep moving forward. That’s the motto I’m trying on for the time being.

With that in mind, I’ve made a decision concerning my blog posts. While I’ll still keep it on my calendar to post every Tuesday, I’m not going to force myself to do so when I have no words to give.

I would rather say less, and be happy with what I do say, than give you empty words on a perfect scedule.

Saturday’s flash fiction fables will continue as scheduled (given the internet allows it). I have a nice backlog, and it’s less pressure since I can write them ahead of time. Unlike real life and time related writing updates.

If anyone is reading this, I want to thank you for taking the time to be here. I may have broken the rules by choosing to write for myself instead of my readers, but your presence here makes these efforts so much sweeter.

Here’s to marching to the beat of our own drums.

A. G. Swift