Keep Writing and Blog On

by perpetualflaneur

Today marks the first day of March, and there’ll be a month-long celebration as my blog reaches its first year anniversary since its launch on March 15, 2012. It has been a year filled with numerous blog posts about almost everything I could conjure or speak of and with it, many drafts containing some thoughts that I’ve been brewing. Upon starting this blog, I wasn’t sure how it’ll be. I was simply following a recurring urge to write and express myself in multiple mediums. It was literally an exploration in the depths of my mind and likewise, for the readers who shared their feedback or simply enjoyed the pieces that I’ve written. Now, almost a year had passed since my first blog post, and I’ve continued to capture and describe fleeting moments, feelings, and thoughts, even now as I write.

While I have written about my journey to the Blogosphere, I have yet to share my experiences, my stories about blogging — the ones that you don’t see when you visit my page. The grueling yet exciting processes before we could hit the ‘publish’ button. There will be days when we are teeming with ideas that we can just write all-day long. When you are sitting down and staring at your coffee, and an idea hits you like a rock, or when you are talking with a friend and hours later as you recall your conversation, you have a refreshed point of view and now you are writing about it. Yes, those days are wonderful indeed.

Then, like any self-respecting blogger, there will be those days when you’ll seem burned out; when nothing seems to make sense and all you want is something innovative. Those are instances when you feel as if your mind is as dry as the deserts. You simply become frustrated, and everything you’ve had at that point seems worthless. Yes, those days come very often too, and if you are not careful, those days can overpower the fruitful ones. Oh, did I also mention those days when you see your fellow bloggers’ posts and you are like “I had that in mind the other day” or “I swear I was going to say the same thing!”

Of course, there are days in between, when you are at the middle of finishing a post and you are just not satisfied with the way things are phrased, with the words that you’ve used, the humor or lack thereof, the tones and manners of your writing, the use of punctuation, the length of your piece, the ideas you are focusing on, and many more. The list can be endless, depending on how meticulous you are with your writing. And then, there are those days when everything is almost seamless; a few edits here and there, and you are done. Off to the ‘publish’ button you go! They are all in the process of writing, which I am sure many can relate to.

These are also the joys and tribulations of maintaining a blog. Blogging is a gift to humankind, and we must utilize it the way it is meant to be used. No matter what, whichever sort of day you’ve had as blogging goes, don’t stop writing, hold on to that feeling (insert that famous Journey song’s tune). Kidding aside, there are multiple benefits that I’ve garnered since starting a blog. Not only have I polished (and I continue to do so) my writing skills, but I have also been absorbed in a virtual community of fellow bloggers, one in which I am constantly improving intellectually and creatively and which I also hope to bring about unto others. Unlike other socially oriented websites, rarely do I find, in the language of the Internet, ‘trolls’ here. It is such a welcoming place to be. Though similarly in the ‘real’ world, we cannot please everybody. There will always be readers who will not agree with what you’ve said or with how you’ve written a post, and it is perfectly okay for them not to like it. What is important is that you have a medium of expression; you have your space where you can explore the world and renegotiate what it means to you. It is yours after all.

Perhaps, you are reading this because you are seriously considering starting a blog or like me, you already have one. I am not going to offer you tips; there’s just so many of those guides and how-to pages on the Web. Plus, I am not sure if I am the right person to give them anyways. With that said, I have something important to leave you with — something so obvious yet something that most of us overlook. The only advice I could give to you, dear reader, in the spirit of my blog’s first year anniversary is this: Keep Writing and Blog On.

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