Chronic Rants

I haven’t written here for a while, and I have been trying to figure out why I feel less motivated. Is it the pandemic? Is it that I have run out of things to rant about after nearly 9 years (wow!) of this blog? I have finally had to admit to myself that it’s neither; it’s my book.

Many years ago, I decided to write a book about living with chronic illness. I plodded along slowly for several years, finally picking up the pace about a year ago. More recently, I have been spending a lot of time working on it. But lack of time isn’t why I haven’t been writing here.

In addition to the time I have spent on the book itself, I have also spent a lot of time talking and writing about the book. I am in writing groups with other authors, I talk to family and friends about it, I talk to interested strangers about it, I post about it on social media, I write about it to the followers on my email list. But the effort of talking and writing about the book isn’t what is stopping me from writing here, either.

Finally I figured it out: it’s my voice. You see, I chose to write the book under my real name. I am sharing a lot more there than I am used to sharing publicly. At the same time, I am sharing less than what I have shared on this site. I am finding a new balance, and in the process, I am holding back on some things. The question I ask myself isn’t, “Should I talk about this in an email or on the blog?” Instead, it’s, “Should I talk about this under my real name or use my pseudonym?” For years I leaned towards the latter but more recently I have been leaning towards the former. And as I share more with my other audience under my real name, I struggle with not sharing those same stories here. After all, how can I maintain my anonymity here if I share the same story under my real name?

Don’t worry, though, I am not abandoning this blog! Instead, I am simply finding a new balance. As with many things in life, this is not a one-time task but an ongoing process. At the beginning of the book, I had to find that balance and I did. Now am finding it again, and the pandemic only complicates things. When I eventually publish the book, I am sure I will need to find that balance again. This is just how things go. But I am sure that I will be find my ranting mojo before too long.

Meanwhile, I would love to know, have any of you ever written books about chronic illness? If so, did you write under your real name or a pseudonym? Did you enjoy it? Was it well-received? Please tell me all about it in the comments! Feel free to share the link to your book so that others can find it, too.

As for the link to my book, well, first of all the book isn’t done yet, so there’s no link. But also, there’s that whole anonymity thing again. If I share the link to a book that’s under my own name, then I won’t be so anonymous anymore, will I? And while I may one day be comfortable sharing all of the stories about myself that are on this blog (I’m mostly comfortable with that now, in fact), there are some stories here about family, friends, dates, and others that are not mine to share. I always checked with them before writing those stories, but they agreed to be mentioned on a blog that was anonymous, and it wouldn’t be right to change that now. So this blog will remain anonymous. Still, my hope is that when my book is one day published, you will find it anyhow. And that it will bring you joy and comfort.