Blogging lessons
Some stuff I learnt, or rediscovered, through blogging and having this site. I don't often metablog so I'm indulging today and tomorrow.
How weird and wonderful people's interests are. I've read so many fascinating posts, discovered so many new ideas, got so many book recommendations. I love putting together links posts. I love people geeking out over their interests. The weirder the better.
How often I could write. I don't post every day, but most days. And honestly I find that easier than in the beginning when I was doing it haphazardly maybe once a week. Doing creativity makes me more creative. I just have to ride that cycle. I'd like to do Blaugust and blog every day for a while, but not permanently. Having that bit of space to breathe is nice too.
How weird I could get. I've definitely relaxed into the writing the more I write. My voice feels more like myself, not that I was ever trying to be formal. The stuff I write about has become more personal. I've taken more risks. And generally it's the more niche or vulnerable stuff that people connect best with.
I need optimism. Shit is fucked, I know that. But I can't be in that all the time. I need optimism and positivity and forward momentum. Hope. In what I write and what I read.
How much fun making a site is. I've not had this much fun putting together a site since 2001. Coming up with silly ideas for pages, making tweaks, and solving annoyances. (I finally got everything in the footer onto one line!) I didn't know, when I started, how hard I was going to get into the CSS and design stuff.
Themes can just emerge. I knew I write to find out what I'm thinking, as Joan Didion said, but I didn't realise quite how themes would crop up, posts would follow on from themselves, ideas would continue and grow and come together. And that's just in my own writing - never mind all the input from reading other posts and bouncing off other people's ideas. Collecting my posts, thoughts, and other links into more thematic pages has been very helpful in this, as has the serial and interlinked nature of blogging itself.
We all want human connection. Online, offline, we all want to feel connected to other people. It seems pretty well proven that 'social media' isn't the best way to provide that. But blogs and emails, that's the perfect pace for me.
On James's Blogger Archetypes quiz I got author with a side of explorer. Though all the outcomes are lovely and important.
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