Blogging’s a funny thing—on the one hand, you (my reader) know more about my day-to-day life than almost anybody else (with the exception of my husband), but on the other hand, there are some glaring holes that I purposely leave out of the blog.
One of those “holes” has been about blogging itself—most blogs that I follow have regular posts on the act of blogging and what it means for them, but I’ve very rarely done any such thing. Perhaps I’ve left it out because I didn’t want to admit how much time I actually spend every day on this particular hobby, or maybe it’s because to me, blogging about blogging just didn’t seem true to the character of my writing.
It’s like what I always say about books—if I’m thinking about what’s going through the author’s head while reading a novel, there’s a problem.
All that aside, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why I blog–I’ve been thinking about the reasons I started to really blog regularly and the reasons I still continue to post 4-5 times a week. I’ve been thinking about the motivation that’s coming somewhere from deep within that keeps me coming back to the blank page night after night and that spurs me on to be ever on the lookout for new post ideas, eager to put more of my words out there for all of you.
I’m not sure of the complete answers to all those questions—many of them seem to be at a subconscious level, but one thing is for sure:
Even though I think it’s impossible to truly blog just for yourself (I mean, that’s what journals are for, not blogs), I still think it’s always been super important to me to blog in the way that comes most authentically to me.
I made a comment to Matt the other night that went something like this:
“You know, it’s weird—I almost always know exactly what posts are going to get the most traffic and comments, and I know what kinds of posts I could regularly do to get the most traffic and comments, but I almost always choose not to do them. Not because they’re bad ideas or because more traffic wouldn’t be nice, but because when it comes right down to it, a lot of those ideas aren’t really ‘me.’ Sure, I know if I did more posts on hot topics like the current happenings of the popular media or the latest issue in the political world, I’d probably get a lot more hits. But in the end, that’s not who I am. So even though I’ll probably never be a ‘big’ blogger because of it, I have to stick with what’s really ‘me.'”
Matt nodded and agreed with my motivations, always willing to listen to my constant droning about this here little blog.
That’s not to say that I think that blogs who do write about those types of subjects are sellouts–for them, those kinds of posts are probably true to who they are. Besides, other bloggers do those kinds of subjects so much better than I could, so I figure I’ll just let them have that thunder.
As for me and my corner of the blogging world, I’m content to stay exactly how I am. Sure, I might be more serious than a lot of bloggers. I might be a bit more focused on abstract ideas and deep introspection. But in the end, that’s who I am.
And you know one main reason why I keep coming back again and again to blogging fresh posts almost every weekday?
Because of all of you—you who accept this blog for what it is, and who don’t criticize me for what it’s not.
You who have followed along despite the fact that maybe I do things a little differently.
So in the end, even though I’m not blogging entirely for myself, I’m still being true to myself.
Does that make sense?
Are you a blogger? Have you ever asked yourself if your blog is an authentic representation of yourself? Or am I the only one that thinks this deeply about blogging?
