I’ve been seeing this a lot lately: someone somewhere on this Earth has written something on the inter-webs along the lines of “if you want to be a serious writer, then you must start a blog!” or “No one will ever look at you if you don’t have a blog/website.”
And, like a lot of people, I start up a blog/website to start my career. But, as I always seem to do, I start the blog and then forget it. I’ve probably started at least 4-5 different blogs, only to stop writing it, or forget about it entirely. I can even tell you the last time I posted an opinion piece on a website (May 20, 2017).
Sometimes it’s because I’m not sure what to write about. Other times I end up putting the website on a back burner because of…well… Life. I come up with the excuses of ‘I just started a job’ or ‘I’m too tired to write anything of interest’ or some other lame excuse. But the truth of it all is: I’m just not good at keeping blogs.
It’s true! I’m even terrible at keeping a diary or a journal. It’s not that I don’t have any thoughts (I have too many!) it’s just that I often don’t think anyone would be interested in what I have to say. That thought is often coupled with struggling to find a topic to stick with and write about.
I like to write about a lot of things: School, my animals, my thoughts about daily life, politics, the list really could go on for another page or two. And don’t even get me started on creative writing. I love coming up with stories in my head! Short stories, novel-esque stories, I even tell myself a story in my head to lull myself to dreamland. Sometimes it’s hard to try and pinpoint a single topic to base an entire blog on. I try not to dwell on one thing for too long and move on, otherwise there’s the issue the topic could consume me whole like some sort of giant python swallowing its prey. Have you seen some of the stories where one of those snakes have swallowed a man whole, with nothing more than his feet sticking out of the creature’s mouth?! That there is nightmare fuel in its own right!
I marvel at how some people can use their blog as some sort of live diary where others could read it and make comments. Some days I wonder if I could do something like that, just to see how people would react to the thoughts that swim in my head all day every day. But then I’m brought down from that cloud when I think that there couldn’t possibly be anyone interested in what’s going on inside my head.
Plus there’s the fact that I seem to veer off topic and start talking/writing about random things that have taken my attention for however short a period. I can honestly tell you that I have stopped and started this opinion piece more times than I care to count! (Of course, I’m also writing this while waiting for the phone to ring at my day job – but let’s not focus too much on that right now.)
In the end, it all boils down to indecisions, fear of not being appealing to the public, and not actively setting the time aside to write something – anything – down to later edit and post to the inter-webs. And whether or not I’m ready to deal with any negative responses.
That being said, I think – believe should be the more appropriate word – that in order to achieve our goals, we have to do things that make us uncomfortable and expose our talents to the world around us. It’s what makes the good in our lives all the more worth-while. It is in that experience that we become the person we want to be.
Aldous Huxley once said, “Experience is not what happens to you, it’s what you do with what happens to you.”
We confront experience every day – it isn’t something we can avoid. It’s the same for this blog/website I’ve created. Whether it is good or bad, this is an experience I need to take. And most importantly, it is what lessons I take from this exposure that define who I am.
I hope this helps any of you who are just as indecisive as I have been.
L.J. LaBree 