Thoughts on Blogging

Friday August 26, 2011

Today is a momentous occasion for me; I have started a blog.  This may seem ridiculous since “blogging” has been around for at least 15 years and has been popular for 10 to 12 of those years.  But 10 years ago I was a stay-at-home mom and blogging was something that was unfamiliar to me.  Two years ago I re-entered the work force and discovered everyone has a blog.  Well, maybe not everyone, but I learned there is a significant amount of communicating done through blogs.  However, with kids still at home, a full-time job and online classes I didn’t feel like I had time to blog.  So now the kids are both gone, I am in between jobs, and I don’t start classes for another month; I can’t use the “time” excuse now.  The truth is that since I became aware of blogging I have found the idea intimidating for several reasons.  First, I have never considered myself a fantastic writer.  My kids both wrote short stories in their teenage years that were a lot of fun to read and my husband has always had excellent written communication skills; I have always felt my writing skills were adequate, but not on par with the rest of my family.  So not only do I feel inept at written communication, but there is also the pressure to make my writing interesting.  Some of those bloggers out there are really GOOD!  Their posts are witty, informative, insightful, and fun.  How is the average writer supposed to compete?  But biggest reason I have hesitated about blogging is wondering if I had anything worthwhile to say.  So many people seem to think they have worthwhile things to say and yet, after being on the receiving end of many worthless comments, most of those people had very little to offer by way of good advice.  I do not want this to be said of me. 

So why did I start a blog?  Well, an average writer will always be an average writer if they do not write, right? J  This is a great opportunity to improve my writing skills. And I do think I have worthwhile things to say.  I cannot fix problems but I can offer what I have learned and give examples of what has worked for me in various situations.  Perhaps in sharing those things someone will find something that will help them in their situation.  This still leaves me with the problem of making my writing interesting.  Several weeks ago a friend gave me a card that included this quote, “Be more concerned with being interested than being interesting.” That was the clincher for me.  Trying to be interesting = impossible; trying to be interested = completely do-able because I already am interested in lots of things!   So for better or worse, here I go…