Why do people blog? Why do I blog?
The reasons people blog are varied; some people have businesses or products to promote, books to sell, ideas to push, perhaps they feel compelled to express themselves because of their status, or they are part of a social community or group and blog to exchange ideas or promote freedom, and then maybe they just like to write.
For me, the later is the reason: I like to write. My lack of spare time makes short blog posts ideal for my current situation. A blog is my diary, my journal of ideas, my outlet for putting thoughts onto paper (really a computer). The keyboard is my pen and the screen is my paper. The blog is the bookstore for my work.
I don’t need an editor, publisher, or an agent to get my inner voice heard. But I would like to have any one or all of the above people. I have a number of short stories on my computer, several larger pieces of incomplete projects and a novel in the final editing stages ready for my “people.” I even have a started a mystery novel involving my “writing group people.”
But alas, with a sigh and note of sadness, work and life interferes with my writing. I need to eat, keep clothes on my back, a roof over my head and maintain a satisfying life with my wife and children. So I work.
I guess my ego is not big enough to wake me at 5 am or cause me stay up past midnight working on my fiction. It is hard enough to carve out time and energy to write 500 coherent words twice a week for my blog, much less to create time to work on bigger projects. For now this blog is a relief valve, I blow off a little steam at a time.
I am patient. My plan is to be the Grandma Moses of fiction. Of course you know she started her creative efforts earlier in life, but at a lower level and in a different media. She dabbled with house paints and embroidery early in her life, and then graduated to painting primitive images taken from her humble rural origins.
I have a retirement plan which includes carving out time to write daily and hopefully profusely, along with other social and creative activities. For now my ego must be satisfied with modest blog posts. More important than the actual number of days I spend writing or the quantity of work I produce is that I seek attainment of a higher level of quality and meaning.
For that to happen in the future I must continue to blog a little at time, attend my writing group meetings as often as I can and slowly improve and solidify my fiction ideas and skills. Read more fiction and non-fiction. Perhaps I might even return to school for a class or two. Incorporate my other creative activities (photography and woodworking) into my writing or use it as inspiration.
My ego must elevate itself, my ego should elicit new ideas, and my ego should experience growth. I must exceed my expectations. I must elevate my efforts.
But you never know how much time you have left so I'd better start working on my Retirement To-Do List now.
But you never know how much time you have left so I'd better start working on my Retirement To-Do List now.
I also blog cause I like to write and am hoping that someone will read it and want to hire me to write for them.
ReplyDeleteI was asked to be a blogging guinea pig over six years ago, since then I have become more comfortable with the medium and through it, have made friends across the globe. At this stage I have met in person about 250 Bloggers that stretch from South Korea & India on one side right across the pond to Newfoundland and on to Utah on the other. There are many more in Europe. Skype calls have opened up conversations and friendships with even more Bloggers from as far and wide as Sydney, Australia & California.
ReplyDeleteLiving alone and with health complications that at times prevent me going out, it means the world comes in to me each day through my laptop.
All good reasons to write and to blog. And the more we do it (presumably) the better we get.
ReplyDeleteAs for myself, I keep telling myself: shorter posts are better posts. But I can't help myself -- I keep blabbing on and on. I've got more to say on this topic, but I'm keeping it short!
Grannymar: Living alone and being lonely are two different things as you have shown.
ReplyDeleteTom: I'll probably take your advice about shorter being better for my fiction and stick to short stories rather than my novels.
Thanks so much for the kind remark. That!s too bad about WordPress. These blogging sites need to cooperate. Wonder what we can do to bring that about?
ReplyDelete