FOR NO OTHER REASON THAN TO WRITE

Keli H the writer posing in fun fashion collage to share style tips

I can't say what compelled me to do it. I suppose this is what people mean when they talk about inspired action ... that it just happens like it's the next natural thing to do. And so, under a spell of unknown origin, I stayed up late and started a blog. No topic, no theme, no long term action plan for it. Just the knowledge that I like to write and the vague compulsion that I needed to start a blog because of it. 

I'll write the next few paragraphs  - and maybe even the posts to come - on the thought that no one is going to read this. At least not yet; not until I find a direction and purpose with it. This is just my space to put down words, because I enjoy that. Long rambling sentences with no point to it, because it's just for my pleasure. There is something liberating about saying that. As a commercial writer who writes my work with the intent of selling it, I haven't been able to 'just write what I like, however I like' for the longest time. It's always about structures and word counts and minding the imaginary reader that doesn't even exist yet. So to be so wordy today feels like exhilarating hedonism.  

The editor on my first commercial book - The Durban Four Hundred, before it was re-branded The Four Hundred Club - said something that stuck with me through my commercial author journey:

Sometimes those extra words are more gratifying for you to write than it is for the reader for to read.

It's advice I took seriously in every piece I wrote after that. It's advice I even passed on to authors I mentored in the years to follow. Because I believe it's brilliant advice, especially in the commercial publishing context. But for this blog, that bit of advice is going to go out the window. 

So too will the business advice I often have doled out to me, and dole out to others in return: that I need to monetize my passions. For this blog, at least for now, there will be no focus on keywords, on SEO, on driving traffic to the posts. It will just be a space for me to write. As long and lengthy sentences as I want. 

This blog is for no other reason than the fact that I like to write. 

For more articles written by Keli H, the author, visit this blog's home page on keli-h.com

 

Keli H is the award winning author of the 400 series, which includes The Four Hundred Club and Splitting an Empire. The 400 series is high brow contemporary fiction revolving around the lives of wealthy circles. Keli's other works include Creating Literary Art. She is also the founder of The KREST House, a storytelling empire.