my blogging struggles
This entry is a response to Robert Birming's post "Our blogging struggles."
I've been blogging in various capacities since I was a teenager and have viewed it more as a compulsion than a practice. I realize that this framing is a vestige of a time when having a blog (much less openly talking about having one) was an unusual, dorky thing. Don't get me wrong--it's still dorky--but more commonplace/accepted in today's world where pretty much everyone has a social media account. As for the act of blogging itself, I struggle to be as consistent as I'd like because of the following:
my haters
Someone I don't want to read my content will inevitably find my blog. From cyberstalking exes to meddling family members to anyone from my past who needs more hobbies, I have to accept this tension any time I publish something. Unfortunately this means I can't get as personal as I'd like, but it's also shown me what I'm comfortable sharing.
too many notebooks
I have several notebooks designated for memory keeping, appointments, ideas, rants, etc. and often feel less motivated to blog when I spend more time on my private writing. Ocassionally inspiration strikes and I draft blog posts in my notebooks, but that's rare.
my personal branding
There is an assumption underlying popular modes of online existence, and it's that we want traffic and engagement. One of the suggested ways of driving traffic and engagement is to limit your content to one or a few niche(s) so that followers understand what to expect. I struggle to limit myself because my interests change every day. While I've leaned into my many interests on this blog, the idea that I need to brand myself as One Thing continues to nag at me. That self-imposed limitation makes it difficult to write.
I prefer to be intentional about my content (I don't want to annoy people browsing the Discovery feed), but I do think blogging happiness can be found in the idea of quantity over quality. Blogging has been overwhelmingly positive for my mental health and enables more interesting human connections than I've found on social media. If you've read this far, I encourage you to respond to Robert Birming's post too!