In William Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying”, Darl’s descent into madness is a major point in the plot. When he becomes completely overcome with this madness, he just repeats the word yes over and over again. This descent starts when he burns down the family barn with his mother’s body inside. The others see this as a destructive, psychotic act while Darl sees it as giving his mother a resting place without the long travel everyone else is planning to take the body on. His madness is justified in the sense that he is doing what his mind sees fit for his mother without a single malicious intent to be found from it.

I had just returned with the arsenic. The labeled “rat poison”. Yes, I would use it on a rat, but just a bigger one than expected…

When he came walking through the door, his fate was already set in stone. We sat down for a meal that night where I put some special “sugar” in his tea. After we dined he headed off to bed. I walked in and laid down beside him. I could feel the convulsions and hear the blood gurgling in his throat. He finally stops and I can pull myself closer to him. I can feel the warmth that will soon leave his body. I then close my eyes and fall asleep beside the man that will always be there for me. The man I know will never leave.

“Monsters are real, and ghost are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win” Stephen King

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.