I’ve decided that if I want to be a writer, I need to write every day. Write things that are potentially publishable.
But my god it’s hard when you’re trying to write for an unspecified publication from which you can get rejected, as opposed to writing for your familiar blog audience.
so write for the blog audience. Experiment. Guest blog for other people. write a fiction serial for your blog. Let blog entries become a kernal of things that you might want to write in the future.
The thing about writing for publication is that most freelance-type things are done on assignment (which is really almost a preferable way to work), so it’s less of jumping out onto the great unknown. And if you’re not writing freelance stuff, and more like writing things for your blog anyway, so just use that voice/style and you’ll be fine.
good luck!
What about publishing your old diaries along with commentary like your recent posts. They really are wonderful.