It seems that there are at least as many reasons\u00c2\u00a0for blogging as there are bloggers. So why did I choose to start blogging? And why do\u00c2\u00a0I continue blogging? It obviously isn’t for fame or fortune.<\/p>\n
I started blogging for a very mundane and prosaic reason – I needed to regain\u00c2\u00a0my writing skills. In order to understand what I mean, some background is in order. I am the author of more than 150 published articles, papers, nomographs, and a weekly newspaper column. Note that I say am, but that writing was mostly more than 10 years ago. In the past, writing was a natural and easy process for me. I could sit down and my thoughts would flow onto the screen or paper without a thought of the mechanics of the process. When I started to write again recently, I was rusty and it was like pulling teeth to get anything out of my head. What should have been a ten minute task became a two day ordeal. The joy of writing was lost\u00c2\u00a0to the struggles within.<\/p>\n
I\u00c2\u00a0am not what\u00c2\u00a0I call a passionate writer. I don’t feel that\u00c2\u00a0I have something eating its way out of my brain that *has*<\/strong> to be published and read. I\u00c2\u00a0am not\u00c2\u00a0even sure what I want to write about until I sit down and do it. All\u00c2\u00a0I know is that I want the mechanics of writing\u00c2\u00a0to get out of the way so I can engage my mind in the joy of creation and expression.<\/p>\n Like any skill, writing depends on practice and hard work. As my friend the writer says, you have to work at it every day. I know he puts in the requisite hours every day. At the Super Bowl party<\/a>,\u00c2\u00a0he and I\u00c2\u00a0had a chance to\u00c2\u00a0chat a bit about it. He reads this blog and sometimes comments to me about it.\u00c2\u00a0(Yet another of the people who comment in real life and not here<\/a>.)<\/em> He also said he had thought from time to time about blogging, but that after the long hours of writing he did each day, he feared he would have\u00c2\u00a0a difficult time\u00c2\u00a0writing still more for a blog; it would become just another task. (He had a point. If I ever feel that this is\u00c2\u00a0a task rather than a joy, it will cease.)<\/em> The\u00c2\u00a0issue here is that practice really does make perfect (or at least ease).<\/em><\/p>\n Back in October\/November,\u00c2\u00a0I made an agreement with myself to write something every day. I promised myself that I would publish daily, no matter what the state of that day’s writing. I also told myself that I would prepare and write any day’s assignment on that day, preferably within 45 minutes of posting it. That way it could not become\u00c2\u00a0a long agonizing process. I also made the explicit decision to only give\u00c2\u00a0my writing a quick once over in lieu of real proof reading. I wanted to be able to write again, not edit. I have\u00c2\u00a0generally\u00c2\u00a0followed that plan. You, my dear readers,\u00c2\u00a0have had to suffer the occasional misspelling and typo, even the rare sentence fragment. For that, I apologize. <\/p>\n The point of this whole meandering mess?\u00c2\u00a0The process\u00c2\u00a0is working. It has become easier for me\u00c2\u00a0to pick a topic and just write about it. Some of my normal wit (and sarcasm)<\/em> has started to peek through as the mechanics have moved aside. It has improved enough that some readers have noticed. Even L has noted that my writing is getting much better. And that makes me happy. But what makes me the happiest is that it is becoming a transparent process, free and flowing. Now all I have to do is work on my tendency to wordiness and …<\/p>\n So why do you blog?\u00c2\u00a0 Are you on a mission? Are you honing a skill? Do you have something eating its way out of your brain? Are you a Martian?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It seems that there are at least as many reasons\u00c2\u00a0for blogging as there are bloggers. So why did I choose to start blogging? And why do\u00c2\u00a0I continue blogging? It obviously isn’t for fame or fortune. I started blogging for a very mundane and prosaic reason – I needed to regain\u00c2\u00a0my writing skills. In order to … Continue reading Why I Blog<\/span>