First thoughts

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.

Once we officially had all the roles I began to feel my heart pound as I had been cast “Actor”. Not only had I never acted before, but my part also included a solo song; did I mention I have severe stage fright! I just kept taking deep breaths and read through my lines a page at a time.

I learned my lines pretty quickly, but I was terrified of the singing part still. I just stuck to saying them for the most part. I did know that eventually I would have to get over that fear and sing them, I just wasn’t ready quite yet.

Our group was very behind so that mad me even more nervous. We still needed to work on blocking, saying the lines with emotion, and adding a natural flow of movement. We also weren’t yet all the way off book, which put some fear in me.

We also decided to change things up last minute and go from traditional to the 20’s. This I feel was a good change. It made the play more jazzy and playful.

The week of the final I still didnt feel we were ready. I planned a day to come to my house and go over and over the lines until we had everything right. I feel like this really helped us.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
What topics do you think you’ll write about?
Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.

My First Blog Post

First thoughts

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)