2017 - November 29 - Heroes (500th Post Edition)

It started as an idea. Really a pretty bare experiment. September 28, 2005, I decided to start a blog and came up with this little place to call my own. And then silence. Until May 22, 2006. And then silence again. I had 7 posts in 2008, 1 in 2009, and whopping 10 in 2010. And for almost six years, the blog was dormant until I decided to post at least once a day in 2016. And I did it = and I was pretty exhausted at the end, and didn't do what I needed to this year - until July. And since then, it's been pretty steady. Sure, it's been a hole here or there, but it's really been steady.

So, Tore, what have you learned about yourself since you started? Great question. I have learned a few things. First and foremost, I have learned that if I set my mind to something, I can actually follow through on it, and 2016 was a great example of that. I have always been much better at starting projects than finishing them, so that is no small feat. I have also started finding my voice in writing again. I used to have a voice in more creative writing way back in high school, but that was a long time ago - and in Norwegian. Finding it again in English has been an interesting process, and it was ultimately very rewarding about one year ago, when I laid the finishing touches on my first novel (/memoir - it was a hybrid of sorts).

Writing a full novel was an interesting process, as I thought I was writing a completely different book than I ended up with. I was thinking more mystery than memoir, but the book really did take on a life of its own and took me in directions I never anticipated. This year I did not have the drive to go after another novel during National Novel Writing Month - there wasn't an idea that was as burning as last years' - but there may be more things on the horizon for me.

So when I started a blog 12 years ago, I had no idea what eventually would come of it. And today I am publishing my 500th post. I don't have a massive readership, but I average about 40 per day, and that is good enough for me to keep me going. You who bear with me through all my meanderings and remembrances are the true heroes of this blog. And I saved the original for you. David Bowie from Berlin 40 years ago resonates as well with me today as it ever did. And there may be more heroes still to come, as there are more versions out there. But nothing - NOTHING - surpasses what the master himself produced.