Blogging about not blogging

Published: 31 May 2024

This post was inspired by Jukesie’s post - Introducing bloggers about blogging

I’ve kind of blogged for many years, but it’s always in fits and starts, and the writing habit seldom sticks for long. I don’t think I could call myself a proper blogger.

The few periods where I’ve successfully hit any cadence or habit over time have usually coincided with a photographic project. My longest streak was my 365days project where I shared a self-portrait and blog post every day for a year on Flickr. I also had a long-running series of #seenonmyrun posts back in the early days of my running obsession. Those were all shared on a Tumblr-esque platform I can’t recall the name of. At some point, they were all migrated onto one of the many WordPress sites I’ve had in the past, all long since retired. Although these endeavours are a form of blogging the photograph is the star of the show and not the written word.

I find writing hard. I’ve increasingly become convinced I have some form of dyslexia and that’s partly the reason I’ve been experimenting with audio-notes. I mostly take solace in the fact that I haven’t ever totally given up. Most of the content I’ve created still exists in one form or another even if not published online. Going back through it all forms a fascinating historical record of my life, thoughts and experiences. I find that those records can be really valuable, especially if your memory is as awful as mine! Writing has also become a handy tool for making sense of and organising my thoughts and feelings. For these reasons and despite my repeated failures to hit a consistent rhythm, I’m unlikely to give up trying anytime soon.

I thought it’d be fun to spend a few minutes reflecting on my writing process and what takes me the most time in the hope that it might help me unblock the reasons I’m not blogging more frequently. The less-than-scientific results of this exercise are visualised below.

Breakdown of how I spend any blog writing time

A pie chart wasn’t really needed was it? no…but I did enjoy making it!

I spend a lot of time ‘Worrying too much about other people and their reactions’. This includes much self-doubt and overthinking the value of anything I might write or share. I’m certain I’ve never had an original thought. This isn’t a surprise, and I know I’m not alone. I’ve had this conversation with lots of people on numerous occasions. In fact, Mathew Wilson and I discussed it just the other week.

I love Jukesie’s advice here…

“Don’t fear the publish button – dance like nobody is watching and blog like nobody is reading…because usually they aren’t…Write for yourself…” - Matt Jukes

This particularly resonates because that IS my approach to dancing - It’s why disco is one of my nicknames. So applying this same technique to writing feels both plausible and an opportunity for fun. This was also a consideration in the redesign of my website that I wrote about yesterday. I want my blog to be about me and for me primarily. I’d benefit from spending far less time getting hung up on whether what I post is ‘good enough’. If anybody else reads them and finds them helpful, that’s just a bonus.

Time spent correcting mistakes is my next biggest hurdle to overcome. I was using grammarly for a time, which was useful, but I also found it quite annoying, popping up in all sorts of places across my Mac. I may revisit the app and spend some time fine-tuning the settings. If anybody has any suggestions for alternatives, though, please let me know.

Anyway - I’ve managed to blog about not blogging. Which means I am actually blogging and not, not blogging…or something like that? 🤯 I’m going to dance over and smash the publish button now - ‘cos hopefully nobody is reading this nonsense anyway 😜

Blogging about not blogging

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