Do people still blog? Is it a thing any longer? Is anyone reading? Or is a blog now just a business strategy? A way to peddle your wares and optimize search engine metrics? What if your only wares are your words?
I’m a big reader. Obsessive and fanatical, in fact. If I could, I would read ALL THE TIME. I don’t recall the last time I read a blog. If I want to dance across the surface of something I’ll find something even more shallow than a 500 word blog. I’ll go for 280 characters or whatever can fit on my phone screen. And think of the ground I can cover. If I commit to reading a blog, it’s easier to read if I open up the website on my laptop, which is a hassle. I might have to open up a new tab. Also a hassle. And in 500 words I’m not going to get in very deep to whatever it is that caught my eye. So why bother?
So who’s reading blogs? Who’s writing blogs? And why? And should I continue with my half-hearted scattered effort of blogging or should I give it up altogether and spend my time in more “productive” pursuits?
Well, I guess that depends on me, doesn’t it? I have limited time in the day. And more frighteningly, limited time in my life. I have a massive (and growing!) pile of To Be Read books. I have a massive (and growing!) pile of writing projects. I get tremendous inspiration, entertainment, and quite frankly, much needed support and pats on the back, from my cosy little writing community on social media. (Total strangers, who totally get me!) I am not prepared to give up any of those things. This hand wringing over whether or not to continue my blogging feels more like my stubborn perfectionism rearing its ugly head. At some point over the past two years I decided I should be writing blogs. Possibly weekly and at the very least, monthly. Every week and month that goes by without a blog from me, eats away at me a little, calling out “Failure! Failure!”. So then I surface, write a blog that is increasingly, and embarrassingly, becoming little more than the ramblings of my doubt filled mind. I post, I feel a moment of relief, and then I go back to what I was doing and have a few weeks reprieve from the guilt of abandoned goals.
I need to remind myself why I started writing a blog in the first place. This happened in my writing journey well before I ventured into instagram and initially provided a safe place to put my writing out into the world. A place where I could be brave enough to put my name on my writing, but could also delete with the click of a mouse if I changed my mind. And let’s be serious, only a handful of people actually stumble across my blog anyway. I was pretending to put myself out there, without really putting myself out there. Oh, how clever!
But I also wrote blogs so I could practice writing. A blog is a small commitment in terms of a writing project. And if it’s a flop, it’s only from the side of the pool and not from the high diving board. But no pain, no gain…hmmmm.
I still don’t have a niche. Maybe I should use my blog to help develop a niche and post only writing to do with that niche – SEO SEO SEO! But nah…that feels too constraining! I want to write what I want to write. I want to change my mind, if I want to change my mind. Maybe I’ll dabble in those micro-story things — short, short stories; maybe I’ll go memoire-ish at some point; maybe I’ll post some of my longer poems; or maybe I’ll just continue sharing the ramblings of my mind. Who knows?
This blogging/website experience seems to be a reflection of my writing in many ways. I have what feels like a plan, pretty solid and logical and well-thought out; and then I start and it decides to go it’s own way. With my writing, I let it. So maybe I should just let this be what it wants to be too….
Til I write again….