Well this has been a very frustrating 5 days. Since Thursday last week I have been locked out of my blog as well as all other WordPress sites. I was ok on Friday. On Saturday I was starting to get impatient. By Sunday I was nail-biting, wondering whether any of my posts would still be there. By Monday I had succumbed to the idea that it may be a long while until I get back onto WordPress. I was thankful that, in the worst case scenario of being locked out permanently, I had backed up all my posts and could re-archive them via a new blog.
The one plus about the situation was that I finally got to grips with tumblr. I had toyed with tumblr this year; mainly using it for posting photographs. But with WordPress denied to me, I was forced to get tumblrised with tumblr. I learnt how to add a comments tab as well as a “Facebook Like” page. I also realised that should the need rise, I could blog from tumblr.
Just as I was giving up hope on WordPress and preparing to grieve my loss of my beautiful Dragonfly Scrolls, I logged on this evening and….I was in. The site was very slow and took about 15 minutes to get me in but I was in. The first thing I did was check that all my previous posts were intact and unharmed. Thankfully I can report that they are all intact.
I did have a few breakthroughs during my enforced lock-out. I was forced to get down and dirty with a short story that I have to write this month. I had a theme and an idea but the characters and the essential plot kept on evading me. Finally inspiration struck and I had my main character. The story suddenly came alive for me.
This made me realise once more that for me Character is the all-important element in a story. Without a Character I have no emotional connection no matter how good the story idea may be. So for me no Character is a creative block.
So now I have a Character and I can see where this story is going. Suddenly where before a faceless Character stood at a four-way crossing not knowing which way was the best route to take; now a Character with purpose and drive took me down a route that was suddenly clear of obstacles.
Another plus about this enforced lock-out was that inspiration struck constantly this last weekend. I have a head full of story ideas. So I have to invest in a new notebook that I can keep handy and capture the ideas as they flow. I have five submissions to complete by the end of this month, not to mention work on two WIPs. So these ideas are going to have to take a backseat for a little while until I take them out and give them the full attention they deserve.
For now I am just happy to be back in the land of WordPress. Watch out for me here. The next post will be a new interview for the Warrior Wednesdays series…If you don’t find me here know that I have been locked out again. Do not despair there is more than one way to word a blog. If not on WordPress, look for me on tumblr. Post I will…by hook, crook, WordPress or tumblr…
For now I leave you with a taste of one of my WIPs. This is a piece I tumbled on my tumblr site:
Inspiration is sometimes loud and jarring. But sometimes it is that one snapped twig in the dark forest. There is an eery silence and you believe you are all alone and then very faintly you hear a distinctive snap: someone is walking there. Suddenly you are not alone.
Today I heard the snapped twig in the dark forests of my imagination. It is the foot tread of a story. It moves quickly and quietly through the forest. Is it following me or am I following it? I still my thoughts and listen. The dark silence is almost deafening. Nothing.
Out of the corner of my eye I catch a glimmer of movement. There is a shadow behind the tree. My heart beats violently struggling to maintain its home in my chest.
I feel watched.
Yellow eyes…
© All rights reserved Kim Koning.
Kim Koning 
Thank God, your problems with your WordPress site ended.
I agree with you, Characters are important, you are lucky that your character found you. 🙂
I was quite a bit luckier with the WordPress snafu…
That is one captivating excerpt!!!
Thanks for the comments on the excerpt Alexander. Well thankfully, my WordPress is now up and running as per normal. 🙂
March 8 turns out to be a grand day on all sides of the globe! Happy that you found your character. Or did it find you? I never know. 🙂
Happy that you’re back in WP, as well. Nail-biting times, yes.
-Mina
Mmhhh I think in this case the character found me. I was looking but had no luck…Then before I knew it I had a mental knock or should I say “growl”…I am also very happy to have my WordPress back and running smoothly. Thanks for commenting Mina. 🙂
Welcome back. I’m glad this issue got resolved, but as a wordpress user, it worries me! Any word on WHY this happened?
Hi Olivia…Apparently it was due to the DDoS Attack. Some sites were affected worse than others. Basically it was an attack that made the service deny access to users. Hopefully it wil not happen again. I was just disappointed with the lack of information or support from WordPress themselves. It also took me hours to just find an email address to email them. I think they definitely need to repair their support system and update it to make sure it works correctly when something serious like this happens. At least non of my posts were lost or damaged. So I am being optimistic and counting my blessings. 🙂