After months of procrastination, I am finally writing my first blog. There are many reasons behind this five month failed attempt to start writing, the main one being the lack of appealing content. What people blog about was a constant question for me, but the more important question was what makes their blogs interesting and intriguing to read. How do you write about something that is unique and different in a world that seems to have covered pretty much everything? All this thinking has driven me to attempt to answer these very questions. I have decided to devote my first blog to the Art of Blogging. The different things readers might be looking for, where content comes from, what drives one to blog and so on.
I have always feared writing something that others don’t appreciate, or worse, something that is so dull, they don’t even have an opinion on. I realized that this constant need to please everyone, in this case your readers, is precisely what holds you back from taking steps forward and writing content that would be inspirational and captivating. Blogging is about writing without restraint, without limitation and without barriers. It’s about self-expression and exploring one’s creativity, and the ability to share with the outside world without the fear of not being praised, because blogging is not about gaining recognition, it’s about reflection and gaining a deeper understanding about your personal thoughts, ideas and experiences.
What personally drives me to blog? Although the physical act of blogging is fairly new to me, I feel like I have been blogging all my life, but in my head. I realized that it’s time to transfer my thoughts into words and begin a journey of self-expression through the culture of sharing. I believe our surroundings heavily influence what we think about and what we experience, therefore what we tend to write about are an extension of our interests and values, including the people in our lives, the things we’re passionate about, the places we go, the things that tick us off and much more. In this case, I chose to blog about blogging.
Having suddenly become conscious of this culture of sharing, I feel as if I have adopted a new mindset and behavior, one that drives me to communicate my thoughts, memories, ideas and much more in an artistic way, because blogging is an art, or at least supposed to be. A blog has to feel genuine, it has to be about something that moves you or something you know, care about, or simply something you wish to reflect on. Regardless of the content, it has to be driven by creativity and inspiration; this is the only way it will feel sincere and honest. The way one writes and expresses themselves will be reflective of this, although perhaps not from the start. Blogging skills and your personal style develop with practice, you learn to reflect, express and write in more fascinating ways; you gain more confidence, and become more comfortable and at ease with your own ideas and thoughts and the ways in which you express them. Over time, your blogs will become a much more accurate reflection of the person you are and how you engage with your surroundings. Going back to my initial question of where content comes from, I believe it comes from the individual. The art of blogging lies within the mind, memories and reflections of the writer, and regardless of what they write about, how they write it is always more significant.