I blog because it's a constant writing exercise for me, more constant than being able to pound out a finished poem, or even more impossible, a novel overnight. Blogging is also a way for me to get over that writer's block when penning a poem or writing and editing novel manuscripts.

I always brainstorm creative writing ideas, but to get them from idea to polished form on paper takes a lot longer if it's a poem or a story, than if it's a blog post.

I'm a former journalist, so of course that meant I was writing daily. I started my blog back in 2009, when I was still a newspaper reporter in suburban New Jersey. Now that I'm no longer a journalist (nor do I have any itching desire to return to the media industry), I see blogging as a way to keep in touch with my writer's roots, in addition to my other daily creative writing endeavors.

I do get social media, and interacting with my friends and family is one reason I'm there (a lot more people I know from face-to-face interactions are on Facebook than Twitter). But to be honest, there are way too many social media to choose from. And it seems like new social media websites crop up every day. I want to simplify my life by only using a few social media websites -- social media that, to me, are the most popular and have remained popular for some time due to the most people using it often. That is why I choose Facebook and Twitter. I also actively use Google+, and LinkedIn, and WordPress too (for blogging). I have a Pinterest account, but I very rarely use it. I'm not the type that hops on to the newest website because that would be just too much for me to maintain.

I started keeping a journal at 8 years old, but my first piece of writing was when I was nine years old. It was for my class's show and tell, and of course that means the class had to showcase a particular talent. It just came to me that I enjoy writing, so I wrote my first poem "Colors." I really wish I knew where I put that copy, so I can transcribe the poem into this blog.

Why did I start writing to begin with? In addition to my passion for the written word, I'm a relatively awful orator -- simple as that. I found that it's really difficult to be interrupted when everything a writer thinks and feels puts all that on paper for others to read. I'm not a good orator; there are very charming and eloquent speakers, and I haven't been one of them.

I keep motivated because I need an outlet to express myself. Doing it in a public setting -- well, to be quite honest, I still don't like to stand up there in public and talk. That's the honest-to-goodness truth. And I still resent being interrupted when I'm in my expression mode (as has been the case with me on many occasions, but who hasn't been there?). I hate to basically be told to shut up, and I don't like being told my feelings are not 'valid' when I express them. Matter of fact, being told what to feel, how to feel or even *if* to feel is my number one pet peeve.

So I can be told to shut up or to be told that I'm ridiculous, overreacting, terrible, selfish, immature or insert whatever nonsensical adjective in there; and therefore, others can feel thumb-sucking justified in feeling superior than me, smarter than me, etc. But I won't stop writing. Hell, I can't stop writing -- it's in my blood. And as long as I have breath within me, I will continue writing until the end of my days.