“Hello?”

“Hey bro. I have to tell you something.”

” Oh. It’s you. Listen, I’m busy right now. I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”

“No problem. Bye.”

Bleep… Bleep… Bleep…

And they never call back.

A starving mouse crept out of its hole
Knowing if it did not find nourishment
It would soon die
Dizzily,
It staggered forward
On the gravelly path
Searching for a bit of food
And soon was rewarded with the sight
Of a large piece of bread
With a joyous squeak
It leapt forward
And had hardly bit in
When it was rammed aside
By a larger mouse
Who began eating the morsel
Whereupon the mouse
Went around the side
And tried to eat
When the other mouse came around
And chased it off. The weary mouse
Went off with a sigh
In search of more food
But it was too exhausted,
Too weak
Took a few steps, collapsed and died.
The other mouse finished the 
Much too large piece of bread

When it spied a cat
Coming towards it.
It tried to scamper away
But its bulging belly slowed it down
And the cat effortlessly caught and killed it.
Moving forward
The cat saw the first mouse
And ate it up as well.
The little mouse died of too little
And the other, of too much.
Such is the story
And the undoing
Of human society. 

Even when everyone has deserted me, and I think I have no one, I’m not really alone. Never was.

Pain has always been by my side, and always will be.

There are many people with nerves of steel who nearly no one cares about.

Until, of course, there’s nothing left of them to care about.

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.