True confession: I, Marial Shea, am afraid of my own website. There, I’ve said it. I launched MarialWrites in February and, since then, I’ve published a mere three blog posts. I thought if I built the site, I might magically become a blogger. Call it the “if you build it, they will come” fallacy. I figured if I built the site, at the very least I would show up.

Now I’m realizing I was one tiny grammatical adjustment away from the truth: just change the tense of the verb “build” to present continuous.

If you are building it, they will come. A blog isn’t something you build, it’s something you are building. Blogging happens in the present continuous.

Joining the WordCount Blogathon

Today I began to exercise my fear-cramped blogging muscles by joining the 2013 WordCount Blogathon. The fabulous Michelle Rafter started this event in 2008. Every year it brings people together to become better bloggers by writing a post a day for the month of June. That’s 30 posts in a row, yikes!

Talk about present continuous.

Michelle V. Rafter

I’m joining partly to get in the habit of blogging. But an equal draw is Michelle herself. I’d follow her anywhere. Her blog WordCount: Freelancing in the Digital Age ranks on many top-ten blog lists, and for good reason: Michelle delivers consistent, quality coverage of “the craft of writing, running a freelance business and the latest tech tools for writers.” No matter how work-swamped or web-weary I am, I always read her posts. If you want a taste, try WordCount’s top thirty posts for 2012.

Even though I’ve been writing for years, I’ve got a lot to learn as a blogger. Where do I fit in the digital world? Where do I want to fit? How do I dive into the hidden depths of things, as I love to do, and still swim back up to the surface with information readers can actually use?

I’m going to find out by doing what I’ve always done: write.

Present continuous: I am blogging.