My Blogging Process

Blogging, my friends, is not an exact science. It's more of an art. But like a weird sort of art. Like the kind you'd accidentally sit on if you weren't paying attention.

And every blogger (or excuse me, ARTIST) approaches their craft in a different way. Some work in the wee hours of the morning, others in the way more fun hours of the night. Some do it as a hobby, some do it professionally, and others do it to complain about their estranged family members or to share erotic Harry Potter fan fiction or whatever. Blogging is a diverse game, y'all.

And since I find it so compelling to learn how my fellow artists work, I thought it might be interesting to give you a glimpse into my own blogging process. If you've ever wanted to know how the sausage gets made here at Avoiding Atrophy, here's a step-by-step account of how blogging usually goes for me:

I sit down at my laptop with a half-idea for a blog post.

I am very excited.

This is going to be good.

I write two words.

I delete those two words.

Then I write one word.

Then I give myself a much-deserved break.

I consume anywhere from two to seven small pickles.

Then I return to my desk, heave a labored sigh, and write, like, six more words.

I think to myself, hey, I'm getting the hang of this. 

Then I delete everything. All of it. All seven words.

I write eight words.

Then nine more.

Suddenly, I've got a paragraph.

I copy that paragraph and paste it into a Word Document.

At this point, I'm pretty sure I don't want to use this paragraph in the blog post, but I want to have it around just in case. I mean, after all, I put all that work into it.

I am back to zero words.

I stare at the blank page.

I write a title, which I will inevitably change later.

I try to check Facebook, forgetting that I've blocked all of my social media using my Freedom app.

I pat myself on the back for being so prepared.

After this, I take some time to feel guilty about my lack of self-control.

Then I eat two more pickles, and I write 300 words.

I am invincible.

I am a blogging machine.

I read through my 300 words, and suddenly I am overcome with the feeling that I am reading the ramblings of a madwoman.

I delete 50 words.

I press Command-Z, which restores those 50 words.

I delete them again.

I make some kind of frustrated noise like, "Eeruuggh" or "Yeesh" and I press Command-Z again.

Pickle.

Pickle.

Write write write.

Blogging fuel

Then I realize I should probably put in some photos.

I spend an hour looking through iPhoto, reminiscing about old times.

Ohmuhgorsh look it's Frasier when he was a kittennnnn.

I decide to go look for Frasier.

Not Kelsey Grammer. My cat, Frasier.

I set him down in my lap.

He runs away.

I pick him up again.

He bites my hand.

Truly, I am alone.

I insert some photos.

I write 100 words.

Delete, Command-Z, Delete.

100 more words.

This blog post is too long.

I write 200 more words.

I've finished...maybe?

I read through everything.

I read it again.

I read it again.

I read it out loud.

I read it out loud, but louder this time.

I hit publish.

I go back and read it again.

I discover 50 typos.

I quit the Internet.

Do you blog? What's your process?

My First Blogging Conference: Alt Summit Recap

“If you have an apple and I have an apple, and we exchange these apples, then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea, and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” 

These wonderful words, first spoken by playwright George Bernard Shaw, perfectly encapsulate the spirit of Alt Summit. Alt is a place to spark conversation, share ideas, and feel generally understood. I loved my time there -- the people, the insights, the glorious decor. Here were some of my favorite bits:

The Grand America Hotel

The conference took place at The Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City, and let me tell you...it was grand. Like, guys, I did not belong anywhere near a hotel that nice. Chandeliers everywhere, victorian wallpaper for days, chairs that were so fancy I was afraid to sit in them -- it was a wonderland packed with amenities and I was not worthy of any of it. I actually didn't sleep at the Grand America, but I basked in the glory of it any time I was there.

The bathroom sponsored by The Honest Co.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I may have spent like 30% of my time at Alt in the bathroom. For one, it was a great place to run into people (Oh hey, girl! I'm loving that lip stain you're applying. Also, can we be friends forever?!). But the biggest reason I kept finding myself attracted to the bathroom was the SICK swag spread laid out by The Honest Company. It was basically what I expect the bathroom in heaven will be like. All of The Honest Co.'s products are eco-friendly & non-toxic, so I felt guilt-free snatching pretty much all of them. 

Silhouette's Sponsor Dinner

The first night I arrived in SLC, I went to a dinner sponsored by the beautiful people at Silhouette. It took place at The Melting Pot, you know, the place where you DIP THINGS INTO CHEESE AND CHOCOLATE. So yeah, obviously, it was delicious. But even better, the company was absolutely top notch. There was one long table where most of the attendees sat, but I ended up at a small booth with four other phenomenal women. It was such a joy to laugh and swap stories with these genuine, hilarious girls. Big shout out to Carly, Brooke, Emily, and Camille and a big, huge thank-you to Silhouette for creating such an amazing evening.

Pinterest Strategies Breakout Session

Alex Evjen and Rachel Faucett

I actually stole the George Bernard Shaw quote I used earlier from Rachel Faucett of Handmade Charlotte. She and Alex Evjen of Ave Styles had me and a room full of others positively mesmerized during their presentation on the ins-and-outs of Pinterest. You might not expect a session about Pinterest to be deeply inspirational, but I found myself so riveted by the way they framed the conversation. One of my greatest takeaways from this discussion was the idea of being an "influencer." I tend to reserve that word for people with thousands of Twitter followers and signature fragrances, but it turns out if you know any humans who like you even a little bit, you get to call yourself an influencer. Your mom, your sister, your college roommate -- all of these folks are people whose lives you influence, and it's totally okay to call on them to help share your content because, hey, they're your biggest fans. That's how you grow your influence: work with the people you've already got.

Hosting a roundtable discussion

I hosted a roundtable on Blogging with Comedic Voice, and I loved absolutely every minute of it. Since this was my first time at Alt, I really didn't know what to expect from the roundtable format, and I was particularly nervous that my topic wouldn't really work with it. As it turns out, it went swimmingly, and it was all thanks to the lovely gals who showed up. They just made it such a profoundly fun, easy experience. Before long, the table was full of women from all parts of the blogging world discussing what it means to utilize humor in our various contexts. I learned so much just by listening to their experiences, and I honestly could have stayed in that little comedy huddle for days.

Oh, and for anyone who wasn't able to make it to my roundtable (or those of you who weren't even at Alt), I posted some of my notes for you on the blog. 

The beautiful people

Blogging can be a really isolating experience at times. It's usually just you, your computer, and thazzit. Alt created a place (a real place, not an online one) for all of us isolated blogger weirdos to be together and just marvel at each other. There were times where I would see people whose blogs I read, and I would think, my god...they're moving. Breathing, eating, occupying physical space. That blogger is more than just her profile picture or her DIY tote bags -- she's a human being.

And I met so many beautiful human beings at Alt. Everyone was truly kind, ready to embrace you and talk about any and everything (not just blogging). I engaged in conversations about marriage, womanhood, cocktails, Tina Fey -- you name it. It was so uplifting to be around such talented, authentic people.

The business cards

Remember all of those beautiful human beings I was talking about? Well, those guys made some seriously creative business cards. While business cards are usually a staple at most conferences, they have become somewhat of a magical tradition at Alt Summit. People deck their cards out with trinkets, toys, gorgeous designs. It's amazing, and every time you get a new one, you feel like a million bucks. It felt like I was a nine-year-old in the 90s trading Pokemon cards -- gotta catch em all.


There was so much I loved about Alt, and I actually don't even think I began to scratch the surface here. Oh, like I forgot to mention this insanely pretty garden party that took place on the final evening:

So in summation, Alt was excellent. I am so fortunate to have had the opportunity to go, and I would love to go again. Going into this experience, I was nervous about awkwardly inserting myself into conversations or being the comedy gal in a sea of designers, but I decided to just go with it. I sat down with strangers, I mixed, I mingled, and it was great. There is a lesson to be learned here, probably something about putting myself out there or making the best of every situation, but meh, I won't overthink it.

Thanks to all who made Alt the joyful thrill ride that it was!

All photos (except for that one Instagram of me awkwardly standing by my roundtable) courtesy of Justin Hackworth and Brooke Dennis. 

How Improv Comedy Will Make You a Better Writer, Blogger, and Person

I have no pictures of me doing improv because they would probably look ridiculous, but here I am doing standup at The Stand.

The act of blogging can often feel like a completely solitary act -- just you and your computer taking on the world. While the process is definitely independent, the truth is (and you know this already), you are not alone. Your blog, just for the very fact that it is exists in an online space, is part of a larger cultural conversation, one that is continually evolving. The content we create may be original, but so much of what we do is either 1) a response to what is already happening in the world around us or 2) an attempt to start a new kind of conversation.

For these reasons, it's easy to draw parallels between blogging and improv comedy. In improv, two people get on a stage, one makes a statement, the other responds, a conversation is had, and in that process a world is created. No scripts, no props – just people. When untrained audiences watch improv, they often marvel at the readiness with which the players advance their scenes so creatively. The truth is, these actors are actually working within a specified set of boundaries, principles of improv that enable scenes to be great. These rules of improv comedy can be applied to any creative practice, but as a writer and blogger myself, I have found them to be transformative to the way that I view the writing process. Here are a few of my favorites:

“Yes, and…”

You may have read about this one in Tina Fey’s fabulous memoir, Bossy Pants. Essentially, “yes, and” means that when you are in a scene and your scene partner says to you, “Margaret, you hair is on fire!” – you should not respond by saying, “No, it’s not. It’s just fine, and also my name isn’t Margaret. It’s Tammy.” Saying “no” in a scene effectively kills it. Instead, the right move would be to say something like, “Holy crap, it IS on fire! That’s the third time this week!” In doing this, not only are you agreeing to what your partner has set up, but you are also adding new information for them to work with. The “and” part of “yes, and” is essential.

How this relates to blog life: It can be so tempting to use formats and conventions you’ve seen work on other sites. For instance, with the success of sites like Buzzfeed, the online world began turning everything into quick, readable lists. These lists are easy to digest as a reader and easy to produce as a writer, so it makes sense that so many are turning to this method. While pulling inspiration from other sites is definitely not bad, we must ask ourselves as bloggers, how can I add new information here? How can I utilize a similar format without just duplicating it? In other words, am I just saying “yes” or am I saying “yes, and”?

ABC Initiations

If you go to an improv show, the actors will usually ask for a one-word suggestion from the audience. Someone will usually shout out something like “Pickles!” (fun fact: people often yell out names of food because that’s usually what we are thinking about). From there, improvisers will either go straight into a scene or they will play some kind of “pattern game” to help generate ideas. Essentially, with any suggestion, the job of an improviser is to think of ways to utilize the word or phrase without being too literal. The process looks a lot like… A makes me think of B, which makes me think of C. Pickles make me think of hamburgers, and hamburgers make me think of the 4th of July. Great, let’s initiate a scene at a 4th of July block party.

How this relates to blog life: So much of the writing process exists outside of actually writing. Much of it involves just collecting inspiration, whether that’s scribbling observations throughout your day or perusing other blogs for ideas. If you are wondering if you are being too literal in the way you are using your inspiration, or if you are just struggling to come up with an idea to begin with, do a pattern game in your mind. PICKLES. Pickles makes me think of Snooki from Jersey Shore (because that’s her favorite food), and Snooki makes me think of how I want to make sure my daughter never becomes like those girls on the Jersey Shore. Great, I’ll write a post all about how to keep that from happening.

Find the Game

“Game” is that thing about a scene that makes it unusual or interesting. It’s the big joke, the pattern, the point. Once an improviser spots a game in a scene, they will then take measures to enforce and heighten it.

How this relates to blog life: First off, writing should be like a game. It should be a place to play, a place to imagine and explore, but we often treat it with such unnecessary seriousness. If you are a blogger who creates content on a highly regular basis, you might be neglecting an important step in the writing process – first drafts. Not just first drafts, but “shitty first drafts” as author Anne Lamott calls them. This is the part of writing where you throw it all out there, every crazy, weird thought you have on a certain topic. Then you look it over, find that one interesting or unusual thing, and then you work on heightening it from there. In writing, this usually means adding as much detail as possible. The more specific you can get, the better.

Be Real

It can be so tempting in a scene to make a choice that will get a laugh, even if it might be a little forced. This usually results in a scene escalating way too quickly with nowhere to go.

How this relates to blog life: In the blogging world, we spend a lot of energy trying to make everything about our platform look pristine, but sometimes the unpolished things in our lives are exactly what our readers need. The best thing you can do, especially in comedic writing, is express the parts of yourself that are not so glamorous. For me personally, my most viral post was when I wrote about things I did terribly wrong at my own wedding.

Make Statements

Improvisers are often discouraged from asking questions in scenes because it leaves your scene partner in the position of having to come up with an answer. It’s much better to make declarative statements. I had a great improv teacher who would always say, “Say that again, but this time, KNOW.”

How this relates to blog life: Confidence is key as a blogger. You already know this because you constantly have to justify to friends and estranged relatives that this thing you are doing is more than just a hobby. In your writing, when you know exactly what you want to say, when you have a good sense for the game of what you are doing and a strong point of view, then you free your readers from the burden of having to fill in the gaps. Ask yourself the questions (“What exactly am I trying to say here?” “Why am I doing this?”), but only meet your readers with declarative, bold statements.

The "Why" of Comedy

A few weeks ago, you may have seen the following image floating around the Internet. These are the notes of a seven-year-old girl planning her first comedy show:

Image via http://www.pophangover.com/

As someone who writes material for standup routines on the reg, I think it is safe to say that this girl has got it all figured out. At seven-years-old, she is not only determined to make a room full of people laugh, but she is also making incredible observations about the conventions of humor. She has discovered some pretty genius comedic formulas here (tiny food + giant silverware = laughter), and I can totally picture her crowd work: "So where are you from? Michigan? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!...Oh, you're serious."

I love this especially because it gets at the "why" of comedy. So often we laugh at something without really assessing what it was that made it funny. We just know that a person said something, and it made us get that happy feeling inside, so we laughed. This seven-year-old, on the other hand, hears a comedian make a silly too-high or too-low voice, and she realizes that that's the trick. Genius, right?

I've been thinking about this awesome girl's comedy tips as I've been prepping to speak at Alt SLC Summer. In just a few weeks, I will be hosting a roundtable about Blogging with Comedic Voice, and in that conversation I will be digging into the "why" of comedy that this little girl understands so naturally. With sites like Buzzfeed or Thought Catalog or whatever else dominating our feeds with funny, sharable content, the pressure to provide a humorous spin on things is huge for writers. I look forward to the opportunity to address that fearful part of every blogger's brain that says, "Am I being funny enough? Witty enough? Smart enough?" while also giving some practical tips on how to naturally infuse humor into writing. Whether it's standup or blogging, I believe the key to comedy is to simply hone in on the expressions of yourself that are instinctual -- or in more blunt terms, stop trying so hard, which is easier said than done. Seriously, just ask this girl:




Whether you'll be joining me for this conversation at Alt or not, I would love your input about how to make this topic more accessible for everyone. I've created a survey about Comedy & Blogging that I would just love for you to fill out. Seriously, it would make my day. If it weren't such an absolutely hilarious thing to do, I might even consider baking you a bunch of muffins to show my gratitude.

And by the way, if you won't be at the conference, no worries, I will be sure to do a blog post with all of my collected data and attempted wisdom. You'll be all set.

The survey is listed below (if you're not seeing it for whatever reason, you can also get to it here). If you have any other thoughts on the idea of being funny, feel free to leave a comment!

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

If I haven't been blogging lately...

I've been a little off-the-grid over the past couple of weeks, blog-wise. Usually when that happens, I return with an apology of some sort. I'll start out with a little joke ("Is this thing on?"), proceed to acknowledge the situation ("It's been positively forever since my last post!"), and I will spend the rest of the first paragraph making some lofty promises ("I assure you, friends, I will never leave you in the lurch again!").

But the problem with that whole song-and-dance is that it seems to imply that you even noticed I was gone in the first place. I mean, don't get me wrong -- I think Avoiding Atrophy is a great website, one that you should definitely subscribe to and follow on social media. But honestly, it probably ranks fairly low on the list of your life's priorities, and I get that. In my absence, you've probably been doing just fine, going to work, meeting friends for happy hour, rushing to doctor's appointments, watching the news, etc. You haven't spent the entirety of my time away refreshing avoidingatrophy.com over and over, feeling increasingly alarmed with each passing day.

But in case you happened to be severely affected, for whatever reason, by my blogging hiatus, to you I say sorry. If you haven't been able to sleep or maintain baseline hygiene because you were worried sick about me and the fate of this blog, let me be the first to say oopsies...that one's on me.

My hope today is to return to this art of blogging with vigor, but I kind of want to explain some things I've been up to so that in the event that an unexplained absence occurs again, you'll be prepared. Here's what I've been doing for the past couple of weeks instead of blogging:

--Writing articles for Salon.com (such as this one and this other one)
--Just being generally bizzay
--Sitting in this hammock on Governor's Island:

--Running NINE MILES, the furthest I've ever run in my entire life, while training for my upcoming half marathon

--Dreaming of throwing a caftan party (read this piece from nymag.com, and holla if you're interested)

Via artfire.com

--Tweeting

--Eating sandwiches with grace and elegance

--Taking selfies with best friends from foreign lands (Cleveland, Tennessee)

--Making a copycat version of Magnolia Bakery's banana pudding (courtesy of Blue-Eyed Bakers)

--Watching my husband speak incredible, life-changing truths at OSNY

--Prepping to speak at Alt SLC Summer (!!!!!!!!!!!!)

--Cutting Footloose at the Awesome 80s Prom

--Creating a vivid fantasy life on my Pinterest boards
--Doing cartwheels in the park because I am finally convinced that winter is actually over

--Eating just so much shrimp

And, guys, those are just the things I was awake for. Dream Christy did a whole host of other things like run for President and lose all of her teeth.

But seriously, whether they are legitimate excuses, those are the things I've been doing instead of blogging lately. In the future, if I ever disappear from the blogging world unexpectedly, you can rest assured that I'm just eating a bunch of shrimp.

But no, I've been hustling quite a bit lately, and really, I'm sorry I was gone. I look forward to shoving all kinds of new material in your face in the weeks to come! What have YOU been up to lately?

How To Be a Better Blogger

Let's just get this truth out in the open: the idea of making money with a blog is very cool. I believe that every blogger is somewhere on a spectrum between "eh, I guess making money with my blog would be nice, but I'm good either way" and "my blog is my business/life/everything". I sit somewhere in the middle, but even from that vantage point, I sometimes have mini-meltdowns about just how much information exists out there on how to be a successful blogger.

I recently listened to this podcast episode from Joy the Baker which really digs into how the blogging industry (if we can even call it an industry) has changed over the last few years. I highly recommend giving it a listen. Apparently in the golden days of blogging, long before my time, bloggers were compensated in accordance with their Clicks Per Minute, or CPM. That means if you had a really viral post that catapulted you into success, or if you developed a devoted following over time, there was a chance that you could be making BANK (or at least some pretty decent money). In today's blogging universe, that is just not the case. CPM is still monitored, but it hardly accounts for anything, and the same is true for most click-based stats. If you have Google AdSense on your website, you know this to be largely the case.

True story on this: My blog first came to be known (by people other than my mom) because of this post I wrote about wedding do-overs. It was shared a lot on Pinterest because I guess people don't want to make mistakes at their weddings, who knows. Anyway, there was one day where my page views just SKYROCKETED. 17,000+ hits in a single day (what the helllll?!). I went to click the "Earnings" tab on my Blogger account, my hands rubbing together like Mr. Burns from the Simpsons, and do you know how much I made from Google that day?

$8.01

That's roughly $0.00047 per click. Definitely not mogul money, but make no mistake, I did buy myself a Big Gulp that evening.

I earned it.

The point is you can get thousands of views in a day, but if you're not leveraging some other side of your business (ad spots, sponsors, affiliate links, product reviews, merchandise), you're not going to make a lot of money. The good news is that there are people out there who are able to make an excellent living off of their blogging earnings. The bad news is that getting to that point can be a colossal pain in the ass.

As someone who has been taking this blogging game pretty seriously over the last year, I've developed a bit of insight (mostly by making mistakes) into what it takes to get readers, keep readers, and yeah, make a little money. No matter where you are in your blogging journey, whether you are Joanna Goddard-level famous or your only follower is your mom (hey, go say thanks to your mom), I believe there are a few key areas we should always be focusing on as people who make stuff for the internet. Some of these pieces of advice may help you grow your readership and some may just help you to see yourself as an artist. Take from it what you will.

Oh, and keep in mind that these are all things at which I've failed, and I probably will again.

#1. Just, like, stop trying so hard.

You know how they say a watched pot never boils? Well, we all know that is garbage. I watched a pot the other day while I was making ramen, and you know what? It boiled. But you know what else? I wasn't any better for having watched it.

That's kind of how blogging works, and probably life, I don't know. Much like the inevitability of water boiling when heated, your blog will grow if you keep at it. It simply will. Unless you don't touch it for months on end, it's likely going to get some traction at some point.

But it takes time, probably more time than you'd like

In the waiting stage, it's so tempting to make desperate moves to get more followers, more likes, more retweets. This is the time where you are most likely to look over into the yards of other, more successful bloggers to try to see what they are doing that you are not. You start making lists, adding more pictures, talking about coffee.

But here's the truth -- readers can smell desperation, and it makes them uneasy. I mean, you know this from personal experience. You've been to that blog before where every post is riddled with cliches and the "About Me" seems like it was written by an alien studying human expression. You didn't stick around long, did you?

Look, I agonized over who was following my blog and how to make it more shareable until one day, I wrote a post that I assumed only my friends would enjoy, and it took off. Things really do happen when you stop trying so hard. Stop obsessively checking your stats, stop using vocabulary you don't really understand, and start writing about the things that matter to you.

#2. Love on other bloggers.

Okay, you're seeing your page views go up, so obviously someone is reading your posts, but no one is leaving any comments. This can be super discouraging. I used to get frustrated when I would post my blog on Facebook, get tons of comments there but no comments on my actual blog. This taught me something, though: social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have an ingrained interactive (social) component. That's not necessarily the case for blogs. If you want people to interact with your content, you have to create a commenting culture. 

Here was my problem: I was sharing posts on Facebook with people who were, for the most part, non-bloggers. Non-bloggers usually won't want to leave comments on your blog because it's not a platform with which they are particularly comfortable. They'll read, and then they'll bounce off to something else. 

You know who will want to leave comments on your blog? BLOGGERS! 

But how do you get them to visit your blog? Easy. Leave comments on their blog! The very thing you want, do it for someone else. And do it genuinely. Find some blogs you're really into and leave relevant comments. I say relevant because "Hey cool post follow pls" probably won't cut it. It doesn't for me anyway.

Oh, also, link to these other blogs that you like. Tweet at them. Make them feel like a million bucks, and I promise you, at least a few of them will return the favor.

#3. Express yourself with your design.

A beautiful layout...ah, a blogger's white whale. Like the clothes we wear or the apartment we decorate with throw pillows from IKEA, a blog layout is the world's first impression of what you are all about. I feel like this is an area with which we can get a little too obsessed, but then again, I'm not a design-centric blogger. There are always things that can be improved upon, but as far as I'm concerned, here are the only criteria with which you should judge your blog layout:

Is it eye-catching? Is it acceptably clean? Can I find all the things? Does it reflect me?

If the answer to these questions is yes, then you are golden! Once again, it's about putting your stamp on things. I am positive that there are some people who come to my brightly-colored blog, thinking to themselves that it looks like a muppet just barfed all over their computer screen. But you know what? These clashing colors and giant glasses do a good job of expressing all of the whimsical nonsense I want to share with the world. 

#4. Make it sharable. 

This is a rule you can feel free to break if it doesn’t work with your style, but I believe that graphics are the single most important aspect to any blogging success I’ve had thus far. Back to my wedding do-overs post -- this was the first of my blog posts that I ever pinned. I took a picture from my wedding, slapped a title on it, shared it on Pinterest, and to this day, that post is still spreading like crazy

If I had not created a graphic, maybe someone would have pinned one of my pictures instead, but I genuinely believe that taking 5 minutes to make a title image in Pic Monkey made all of the difference for me. And when I say 5 minutes, it really is that easy, easier even. I just made this picture in exactly 2 minutes and 45 seconds.

Now, not every image you pin is going to go viral, but the point is that images are effective. Don’t assume, however, that graphics are a substitute for quality writing. They are not.

#5. Write what you want and wait for someone to like it.

I may have already said something similar to this (or exactly like this) before, but that’s because it really bears repeating. Writing is a practice that has the power to shape lives, most notably your own. If you are blogging what you love – at best, you will make a career out of it. At worst, you will have a collection of writing that you can be proud of. When you write what you love, you simply cannot lose.

Anyway, for preaching sharable content and graphics, this sure has been a wordy post with very few images. Still, I hope it's at least brought some clarity and hopefully some comfort as well. The main point of all of this, as cliche as it might sound, is to be yourself and allow wonderful things to happen naturally. There really is no good in waiting for that pot to boil. 

Bloggers, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. What are some of your tips?

Avoiding Atrophy's 100th Blog Post

Today is the day, folks. My 100th blog post. Other bloggers in this world who started much later than me passed their 100th post ages ago without even realizing it. These are the kind of fabulous people who post every single day, write in some kind of day-planner to keep their blogging life in order, and make breakfast smoothies, probably with spinach. I don't do any of these things, so almost three years into this thing, I'm just now getting into my 100th post. Deal with it.

Getting into triple digits is monumental to me. It means that there were at least one-hundred times in the last two and a half years where I sat down with a focused intention to communicate my thoughts through writing. Of course, some posts were a bit more focused and intentional than others.

When I started Avoiding Atrophy, I was in that weird, post-collegiate transitional period, a time which has been the catalyst for certainly thousands of other blogs. I felt wayward and strange, totally unsure of what the next year was going to look like. Here is an excerpt from my first post where I laid out the foundation of why I wanted to write during this time in my life:

Everyone knows this is an interesting transition. I'm not the first to write about it and I won't be the last. Many of the people I know are in this exact same boat, and let me tell you, it is weird. This is the first time where we truly could sink or swim. We could choose to pursue this new life with a boldness and determination that we always dreamed we would or we could sit, lie, wait, and let our muscles atrophy until we don't even resemble human. 

For me, I choose the former. That's just me though. And this blog is to hold me accountable to that. 

Over the course of time, I've been able to elaborate on why I began blogging, but I'm not sure I've allowed myself to explain what this whole thing has truly meant to me. I started out writing Avoiding Atrophy thinking that I might make some people laugh (my mom, at least) and that maybe I'd be able to use it as a distraction from constantly refreshing monster.com. I had absolutely no idea the implications blogging would have in my life, and if you've been with me from the beginning, you probably didn't either. I mean, my first post was titled "A Defense for Cowboys & Aliens." That doesn't really scream successful lifestyle blogger, honestly.

An early photo of myself that I posted on my blog. Wook at duh wittle baybeeee!

Looking back, though, on where I was when I started and where I am now, Avoiding Atrophy has been exactly what I hoped it would be -- a way to keep myself accountable, a way to remind myself and others like me that life can be beautiful even when it's the worst. But believe it or not, it's become even more than that. This blog and the people who support it have given me courage like I never would  have had otherwise. At least, I call it courage. You might call it insanity.

The encouragement I've experienced here has propelled me to change the entire trajectory of my professional life. I left my job and decided to call myself a writer. Some days I even make money doing this. It's all kind of unbelievable.

And none of that would have been possible without you. Yes, YOU! Reader-you. I've got to be honest, as much as I was doing this for my own edification, it would have been tough to write one-hundred blog posts with no comments. Somewhere along the way, people started reading, commenting, and sharing. And sharing is caring, guys. No, but really, it is. It's how we feel understood. It's certainly one of the best ways I have felt understood over the last few years.

This blog is a different thing than it was when it started, and I like to think I'm a different thing too. If I could go back in time and tell Early Blogger Christy what her life would be like over the next couple of years, I think she would be like, "Get it, girl!"

Oh, Early Blogger Christy! There is so much you don't know!

Here's what I would tell her:

-You're still married to your husband, and he is still keeping it tight.

-You eventually find a job...more like five jobs...and you hate almost all of them. Stop crying.

-You move to New York City. Brooklyn, specifically. You get a cat and call him Frasier, for he truly is a pretentious jerk, but you love him anyway.

-Avoiding Atrophy undergoes a bit of a transformation when you write a couple of posts about things you would do-over at your wedding. A bunch of people share it on Pinterest. Oh, you don't know what Pinterest is yet? Oh, honey...

-You struggle with all of this because, well, you're not a wedding blogger. In fact, the only thing you really know about weddings is what NOT to do at them. You worry that you are getting page views for all of the wrong reasons and that when people find out that you mostly just write about cats and your feelings, they will expose you for the fraud you are. 

-This doesn't happen. It's a miracle. Out of this influx of traffic, a handful of fantastic people stick around. They sympathize with your inability to put your hair in a sock bun. And, girl, get this -- they leave comments.

-In the midst of all of this, you make a big decision to totally reroute your career path. And guess what you decide to do instead? Girl, just GUESS. 

-You decide to write. It's the thing that has always made you the happiest, and you've decided to make a life of it. This came about for a whole host of reasons -- one of those reasons being your love of blogging, so girl, seriously, keep it up. 

Long story short, blogging = life-changer. So once again, thank you, guys. Thanks to the new readers and the ones who have been with me from the beginning. Thanks to the countless bloggers who have provided me with a ton of wonderful bloggy advice, and thanks to all of the writers who inspire me on a daily basis. And finally, thanks to the people in my life -- those I can see and touch and smell as well as those I can Skype with-- who have been so encouraging of this endeavor. You just have no idea what you mean to me.

Before I go, I'll leave you with ten of my favorite posts from the last one-hundred (wow, 100!). Feel free to read them or feel free to do literally anything else. Either way, I'm just happy you were here today helping me avoid atrophy.

10 Things I Like About Myself // Laments of a Former Film Student // A Cure for the Sunday Wigglies™ // Smart Girls Have More Fun // Progressively Married at Twenty-Two // If I Had It To Do All Over: Wedding Planning // How to Create a Better Writing Space // New York City: The Fickle Lover // The 10 Best Search Terms That Lead To My Blog // Feelings Friday: Bravery

Here's to 100 more!

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?

Today, I dedicate to you, my readers, the following song:

But seriously, have I told you lately that I love you? Well, darling, I'm telling you now.

We are nearing the end of the year, and when I look back on my slew of joys from the past twelve months, you guys are damn near the top of it. That might seem a strange thing actually. I mean, several of you I have not even met, but believe it or not, you have played a pivotal role in the direction of my life this year. Seriously. Is that weird?

It started in February when I wrote a post about things I wish I had done differently at my wedding. Suddenly, overnight, my blog went from being a place for my family and friends to check in on my life to a place where thousands of people were reading my writing on a daily basis. To this day, that post still gets a ridiculous number of hits, and I'll be honest, I think a lot of people probably just read it, chuckle a little to themselves, and move on to niche wedding blogs. A totally respectable choice in my mind. 

But what I have been so humbled by this year is that a miraculous handful of you have stuck around. You have interacted in the comments section, provided advice for me and my husband, sponsored my endeavors, and shared your stories. Your interaction in this place called Avoiding Atrophy has given me confidence to call myself a writer and to make big decisions for my future that I never thought I would make. 

But it's not just about the things you have done for me. I love you for other reasons, don't you worry. Recently, my friend Lauren asked me what is one of my favorite compliments that I've ever received. The honest truth is that I love receiving comments where readers say things along the lines of, "I think we would be great friends!" because A) that means that hopefully I've communicated my thoughts in a fun and interesting way, and B) I TOTALLY think we would be great friends too!

Each time I read your hilarious observations on life, I am positively tickled. TICKLED, y'all. So not only do I have readers who interact with my writing and make me feel like my dreams can come true, but also, I actually like you guys. I mean, that's rare, right?

A page from Sandol Stoddard Warburg's  adorable book, "I Like You"

Anyway, the New Year is coming up, and I'm one of those old softies that makes resolutions. Given the fact that you all have been such a strong presence in my life in 2013, I have resolved to give back to you guys much more in 2014. Last week, I did my first giveaway, and I'll definitely continue doing more of those while also finding other ways to make Avoiding Atrophy a place that serves its readership. 

Again, I really like you guys, and I want you to really know that. In the meantime, while I'm shy of ideas, I made you this card:

Get it?! Because he's sitting in front of LOADS of laundry!

.......

...don't worry...I'll think of something better next time.

My Message to Bloggers (and writers, and basically anyone, I guess)

I was always the one with my hand in the air when the teacher asked for a volunteer to read aloud in class, especially if it involved reading my own writing. I would lean over my desk with my arm raised high and make piercing, almost threatening eye contact. The teacher would look around the room and say, "Anyone else?" When no one would respond, she would release a small sigh, gesture to me and say something like, "Fine, go ahead" and I would clear my throat, sit up straight, and proceed to take my class on yet another one of my seven-page journeys.

I have only recently realized how irritating this practice must have been for my teachers and peers. Sorry, teachers and peers.

This is pretty much what I looked like, only not as cute. (via)

Needless to say, I loved writing. I loved it from the moment I could do it, and I remember elementary school classrooms being a place where this passion was very well-nurtured. At that age, I was daily encouraged, as we all were, to imagine, to dream up realities and find a way to convey them to the rest of the world.

Second grade, for whatever reason, especially stands out to me as a time where I grew significantly in these abilities. Before class every day, my teacher (shout out to Ms. Lopez!) would write a prompt on the board, and when we arrived, we would pull out our journals, write, and then have some sharing time (otherwise known as The Christy Show). These prompts would sometimes be as simple as, "What is your favorite food, and why?" but others would require deeper, more critical thinking. I especially loved the ones along the lines of, "Write a letter to the President and tell him what you think he needs to be focusing on right now." I was all over a prompt where I got to tell someone what to do.

There were some days where Ms. Lopez would forego a prompt and instead just tell us to do some "free-writing" where we could write about basically anything. I remember hating this. I'd look around the room at everyone's quick-moving pencils, their minds clearly racing with ideas while mine was despicably empty. I'd watch Ms. Lopez at her desk, bleary-eyed and obviously in no condition to come up with a decent prompt, and I would resent her for it. I wanted a prompt, damnit, not some willy nilly free-for-all.

While writing is something I love, something I'm good at, generating ideas is really challenging for me. I consider myself to be creative, but I am the type of creative who innovates preexisting concepts. I need just a little something-something to get me started. I guarantee you that in my lifetime I will never be an inventor of anything.

This is an interesting challenge for me as a blogger. Since so much of what I now write goes directly out to the world, I always feel a pressure to produce really solid, unique content on a regular basis. Sometimes blogging feels a lot like free-writing in Ms. Lopez's class. It's simply too much freedom. I could write anything: a list of all of my favorite fruits and vegetables, a review of a movie or book or salad dressing, a post with pictures of my eyebrows before and after tweezing. I need direction. I need limitations or my brain just breaks and I sit there entranced by the flashing cursor on an empty screen. It happens a lot.

Knowing this about me, Daniel bought me a really great gift recently.

This, friends, is a book full of prompts, and if you're anything like me, I suggest you go get one for yourself right now.

Like Ms. Lopez's prompts, some are simple...

Except, what the hell? Beat(nik) soup?

Others require a bit more critical thinking...

Also, some of them are flat weird. 

But I love this big, fat book. It's gotten me through some tough days, both as a writer and as a person, and it has served as a reminder of what makes writing really great -- ideas and imagination. That's it.

I'm a fan of stuff like this because somewhere along the path of my education, prompts stopped being as much of a thing. Suddenly, in high school I was practicing writing for standardized tests instead of creating worlds and impossible realities. I was drafting college essays and cover letters, things that have a discernible weight of anxiety attached to them, instead of writing fake letters to the president. Writing stopped being a place to imagine and it turned into a place to accomplish. I feel that tension in my writing to this day.

The thing is, while I'm no longer begging a teacher for attention with my arm raised in the air, I'm still that annoying kid who just wants to have my words heard. That's what this whole blogging thing is about on some level. Every blogger was that weird kid in elementary school class who always wanted to read aloud. There, the secret's out.

And most of us want to be successful, which is not inherently a bad thing. I would caution bloggers, however, as I would caution myself, that in the pursuit of finding some variation of achievement, we cannot lose that heightened sense of creativity that we experienced during 2nd grade journal time. I am not saying that we should set our blog posts in mythical realms or spend time inventing new bands of superheroes (though if you are doing that, please tell me because I want to read your blog right now). What I mean is that we should be thoughtful enough to this process of writing to really say something with our platforms, even if that something is "I made a sweater" or "Here's why I love french bulldogs." Whatever you're saying, it should be authentically you and it should be executed creatively.

What I feel like we often do instead is frantically look around at our neighbors to see what they are doing. Just like me on free-writing day in 2nd grade, we panic in finding what to write about while the rest of the world seems to be on the right track. We start to look at the success of fellow bloggers, and we try to imitate their same formula. 

I'm going to get real here, and it might sound catty, but please trust my intentions. There are some majorly popular, majorly boring blogs out there. Yeah, I said it. I've seen blogs, and I'm sure you have too, with thousands of followers, but that lack a real sense of purpose or ingenuity. Maybe a recipe here, maybe an embedded YouTube video there, but at the end of the day, it's nothing to write home about.

And I think these blogs are dangerous because A) they expect no inkling of intelligence from their readership and B) they make the rest of us feel like we need to alter everything we are doing. When I start to discover the recipe for this kind of blogging success, it is so tempting to want to follow a similar path. I am constantly checking myself -- is this really what I want to write, or is this what I think people want to read?

It's a battle, and I am not always winning it, but when I'm absolutely not sure, I go to my prompts. I pretend I'm seven again. I write from the heart, and I see what comes out. I think blogging can be this simple, and I would challenge all of us to take the pressure off of ourselves, and do what we do best -- write. Screw those other guys. They probably have, like, I don't know, a fungus or something. We don't want to be like them anyway.

I wrote this more for myself than for anyone else in particular, but if this is ringing true for you, I would love to hear some of your thoughts. How do you stay honest in your writing?

Back to Brooklyn, Back to Blogging

Full disclosure: I have started writing this post multiple times in the last hour, and each attempt I have made has ended with me deleting everything and then walking to the kitchen to eat a pickle. I have now eaten seven pickles, so I feel like I should probably just shoot straight with you guys.

You may or may not have noticed that I sort of fell off the planet in the last couple of weeks. My last blog post was about how Feelings Friday, something that I invented without provocation, was canceled, so at that point, I'm sure you could already tell that I was pretty much checking out mentally.

The thing is...I've been busy. Really, really busy. Lame, right? I mean, that's really it. Worst excuse ever.

For those of you who read regularly, I am sorry I left you hanging for a while there. I mean, how can you ever trust me again? You can't. Let's be honest. Reading my blog is a little bit like dating this guy:

Sure, he might make some promises he won't keep. He might miss your birthday or leave you in a Denny's bathroom. He's an unpredictable, dangerous bad boy...isn't that part of the fun?

Actually, scratch that. Don't date that man up there. And don't think of my blog as an irresponsible biker boyfriend.

Instead, imagine reading Avoiding Atrophy as being happily married to this guy:

I don't know...I just feel like he's the reliable type. 

Anyway, here is a list of things I've been up to since I last posted. I assure you that I will expand on all of these things in the days ahead.

1. I completed my Improv 201 class at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.

UCB logo

2. I've also been doing a little bit of stand-up here and there.

Looking SUPER comfortable in a cat-print button-down

3. I went apple-picking in the utterly lovely world of upstate New York.

Photo credit goes to Jess! This is my friend, Clint, and he's basically my brother.

4. I went home to San Antonio, Texas and ate breakfast tacos every single morning. 

5. I spent some much-needed time with my precious niece, Amelie. She is three-years-old and loves spider monkeys as well as talking about spider monkeys.

6. I had a reunion with some of my oldest and dearest friends.

7. I traveled to Austin, Texas and ate this outrageously scrumptious dessert from Salty Sow:

Don't worry. I shared it with my sister.

8. I spent a weekend of wedding festivities as the Matron of Honor for my sweet friend, Emily.

I definitely have more thoughts (and pictures) to share on this one.

9. I wore false eyelashes for the first time and made this face about it:

Anyway, I'm back in Brooklyn for another two weeks and then back to Texas for another wedding. Busy-bee-party-of-one over here, but I will not forget you in all of this. I'll try to make this blog more like the reliable jockey husband as opposed to the flakey biker boyfriend. You'll see, you'll see.

What did I miss while my head was in the clouds the last few weeks? 

Is Miley still doing stuff? I have no idea.