The WordPress Commissionsers have phoned through with the three next assignments.

Assignment 2: edit your title and tagline, and flesh them out more in a widget

Assignment 3: write the post that was on your mind when you decided to start a blog.

Assignment 4:  follow five new topics in the Reader, and begin finding blogs (and bloggers) you love.

Blog Title, Tagline and Widget

When I started my blog, it was (and still is) all about exploration. My title had to reflect not only this aspect but also that I was uncovering something I felt should have been obvious and discussed amongst my cohort but was hidden. I briefly toyed with the idea of “lifting the veil” and thought about “carping diems”. I eventually settled on “Raising the Curtain” because it was a common expression, easy to remember and was still available as a URL in the “net” identifier. I will admit to reading Blogging for Dummies ever so briefly before I started which had suggested a custom URL from the beginning for ease of transportability between hosts. This made sense to me because if I was destined for blogging greatness, I could eventually create a brand. Hence the name Curtain Raiser and the curtain banner.

I had this notion that whilst I was waiting for blogging greatness, the least I could do is learn whatever science was behind branding, promotion, and copyrighting through this blog. This blog is therefore not just a personal vehicle, but also a pseudo professional one to learn the technical and creative skills necessary to write persuasively. The content is very much personal, but the blog is also my creative sandpit.

One day, I have my sights on freelancing. When the energy finally claps out and the adrenalin rush of corporate deal making ceases, I hope to have the digital and journalistic skills necessary to become a freelancer. It’s my dream and I firmly believe that I am not too old and it is not too late. Blogging has been a real blessing in a lot of ways, it has taught me a lot and will still teach me even more.

All of this to say, I have not changed either my blog title nor my tagline.

I did however add an “About this Blog” widget to my side bar as the WordPress Commissioners suggested. Sometimes it is not obvious what a blog is about and most readers don’t want to or have the time to read five blog posts to find out. It is not easy to distil what a blog is about in one sentence (even if it is on the slightly longish side), but as it often does, inspiration struck during my morning walk. Creativity and exercise must be related in some way, at least in Curtaindom.

What was on my Mind as a Fledgling Blogger?

Good question. I have answered most of it above.

One other element that was on my mind at the time was signage. You’ll see it referenced in my tagline and in my very first post and

image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

comes up routinely in my explorations. I am a journeyman and believe you can’t be taught experience, you can only gain it. The only way forward most of the time is by doing despite the fear and this blog and the A to Z Challenges are all about that. However, I was also hoping for some answers to the changes taking place in my life and within my family dynamics.  More specifically, I was seeking direction and a path for the way forward.

In seeking that, I have discovered that it is not always possible to see that far ahead. Sometimes your visibility is only as far as one step. Whilst that was a worry when I started blogging, it no longer is. One step is all I need to move forward at a time. Sometimes, I still feel the need to strategize and look at the bigger picture, but if the answer is not immediate then I’m far less uncomfortable with that now.

I love the flow I’m going with. And surprise, it’s so much easier than having everything mapped out and being disappointed when things don’t go as expected.

There is no doubt I was looking to grow and have grown through this blog.

There is no doubt, I will continue to do so.

And gosh darn, I’ve gone all deep again and I was meant to be 49 posts away from doing that.

So I’m now off to visit some of my fellow Zero to Hero bloggers to tackle assignment 4 and will leave you with this piece of parenting humour for you to enjoy (because there are definitely days when I feel like this):