The Unexpected

S.A.Holt · Post by **S.A.Holt** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 11:02 am

I thought I drop in with a few words about the unexpected. I started a blog about five months ago, building it slowly, very slowly. I thought it would be a good tool in quite a few ways, and it has brought me some business. I have become discouraged on and off about its performance, wishing my numbers would grow faster. I've lusted after more comments from visitors, and kicked myself for not learning more about photography.

Last Sunday, I was thinking about how it's been a while since something really good happened with my writing. I'm a devoted plodder, creating output, staying consistent. Okay, I'm getting to the point now. When I woke up on Monday, I discovered that my blog had been featured in the [i]Wall Street Journal's[/i], Blog Watch column. This was totally unexpected. I even had to subscribe to the paper to find out what they were writing about me.

This is a hoot, truly. It's also a lesson for us about staying with our projects, even when the prospect looks bleak and other pursuits make more monetary sense. I couldn't have planned it; it wasn't on my schedule for this month, or this year, or ever. Yet, here it is.

I'm not going to list the blog here, and it's written under my real name, not S. A. Holt. I will say that it's about herbs.

If you have a pet project gathering dust in a drawer, or an idea for a blog that hasn't moved out of the pondering stage, don't give up on it. I'm here to tell you, anything can happen, whether you plan it or not.

If you have a story about an unexpected event in your writing life, please take a moment to share.

Ed · Post by Ed » Tue Apr 01, 2008 11:04 am

That is so great! Congratulations.

Celeste Stewart · Post by **Celeste Stewart** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 11:17 am

Really cool! Enjoy your unexpected moment!

CRDonovan · Post by **CRDonovan** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 12:06 pm

Whoah! Very cool. Nice way to start the week.

grouchy · Post by **grouchy** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 12:17 pm

Unbelievable! That is truly amazing and exciting. If I were you, I would be doing the happy dance all day! Way to go.

JD · Post by JD » Tue Apr 01, 2008 12:57 pm

Congratulations! And very inspiring. Thanks.

S.A.Holt · Post by **S.A.Holt** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 1:39 pm

Thanks. It was pretty amazing. When I saw the stats skyrocket, I thought it was a mistake. When I emailed my husband about it, he thought it was an early April Fools' Day joke.

It only goes to show that you have to put your work out there for something good to happen.

breidi · Post by **breidi** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 8:01 am

Congradulations! That is awesome!

Breidi

vjlenin · Post by **vjlenin** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 10:29 am

Wow, Holt, brilliant! hearty congratulations.

I also have a pet project, as some of our buddies here know: cute writing, cutewriting.blogspot.com.

I want to make it a highly read writing help blog. I am for making good writing pervade. (I am a lousy editor and blogs dont have an Ed in place), it may have some errors here and there (though optimized for writing--good writing-- ironically good writing blog is written with bad writing errors). So, if interested, friends, please go through the blog, and spot any silly mistakes I might have made, and let me know. Corrections are very inevitable to it.

Love
Lenin