To Blog…or…Not To Blog

Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com!

You registered on WordPress.com 8 years ago.

Thanks for flying with us. Keep up the good blogging.

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EIGHT YEARS. 8 yrs. Wow!

How time flies when you’re blogging.

These past 8 years of keeping a blog, or I should say a blog keeping me has been so many things I never intended, many things I had no clue it would teach me, so many different perspectives to take my writing to. This blog has been a catalyst to my growth as a person, as a woman and as a writer. I can read past entries and read in them the growth that has taken me to these moments today with relish. This blog is my reminder that I am taking life on with a rebel roar while thriving along this journey,

In 2008 when I tackled the challenge of creating a blog I was not the least bit technology savvy. I could navigate my computer but never understood why something worked or didn’t work.  I had begun to participate in health forums in the mid 90’s searching for others who I knew existed like myself who are survivors of a failed medical implant. I had a voice on the vast topics involved and there was an audience. In 2004 and into 2007 I was invited as a guest author and blogger with a response each time that would leave me literally flabbergasted. It was validating and empowering, but I minimized what I was doing by the fact it was a select audience who held a personal invested interests in what I was writing about. Things they personally knew as well.

I began to wonder if I broadened my topics would it broaden my audience?

If I removed the initial emotional connection to me, i.e. medical commonalities, would I still have something to say that anyone would find merit in? Would there still be a readership?

It was a frightening and sobering thought. What if what I wrote others thought was garbage? Worse yet, what if I hit publish and no one came?

2008 I thought I had the courage.

I created a fancy looking blog thanks to the user friendly WordPress.(yes a plug for WP)

I began writing what I had intentions of sharing publicly. My first post…I edited it, I sat on it. I changed the content, I edited. For two, almost 3 years. Yes, you read right. I was too nervous to hit the publish button. So I didn’t. Oh I still wrote, I processed some intense stuff during those first 3 years in my unpublished blog. But I couldn’t bring myself to having enough confidence to click that publish button.

I share this 8 years later because of an admission I feel I owe to those I have encouraged to blog. Rather overly passionately encouraged I am afraid. Glossing over the fact that there was real fear that came over me when I realized going public was subjecting myself to real critiquing. I am a passionate advocate about writing in general and hope to always be a spot of encouragement to anyone who puts their thoughts into a narrative, regardless of the format or genre. Wordsmithing is an art and it’s a courageous thing when thoughts are committed to words to be written.  To take that courage and step into the abyss of the world of critics by publishing a blog is downright frightening, I think in my passion for writing and my wish that everyone would know the pure joy I believe writing brings I have minimized the frightening aspects of going public.  I make it sound so easy.

Truth is the mechanics of creating a blog could not be any easier, and the price is right. Free. Although if you are now or do become serious about writing and building a brand behind your name I highly recommend purchasing your domain name and registering your name with Creative Commons.

Blog built. Check.

That was easy.

(note I will put my assistance where my mouth is and offer help to anyone wanting to create a blog but feels stuck)

Now there’s a blank page in front of you with a cursor keeping time it seems with your pulse. A blank page….LARGE….a W>I>D>E open space.

It’s a challenge and one most writers take on happily, even though it’s work. We forget about everything, anything, anyone or anyplace else but what it is that wide open space is allowing us to express. Like a painter with a brand new canvas and tubes of paint, the colors are there for our expression, stringing words together saying what we need to say. Expressing where it is our random thoughts take us, giving no thought to anything else but the melodies the letters combined compose. Rough drafts are our raw work, we give no thought to why the words work, or if they work, they just spill from us. Making them make sense to someone else comes next.

Is there no better feeling than walking away backwards to check what we expressed and finding glimpses of our soul peeking through?

I think so.

Albeit I believe I write for myself first there is no denying the feeling of satisfaction in composing the words so they strike a chord when shared with someone else. I won’t deny either the nerve-wracking anxiety I felt after hitting publish the first few times… and then waiting…..I didn’t know whether to feel relieved if there was feedback, or to be relieved if there wasn’t.  Holding my breath I waited.

Tears . Of relief? Gratitude? Accomplishment? Expression?

All of the above.

For suddenly this deep abyss of wordsmiths and purveyors of words no longer held me prisoner in the unpublished cell, suddenly this community called WordPress became my community, suddenly I was looking forward to the critiquing I had so feared.

My Dear newbies to the land of Blogging and those still on the fence; let me say that the one thing that held me back is not only something I look forward to today but a motivating prompt for me. My thought is this:  If what we write inspires dialogue of any kind we are touching nerves in people enough for a response, we are on the right path of contribution to humanity.

So,….when I encourage you to write, maybe even to blog, it is because in your wordsmithing I read that you have a message to share with the world, or some of us. There are folks who need the message to come from you alone, just how you alone articulate it. It’s true there may be anxiety in hitting that publish button, so think of this: Is the fear so powerful that you can live with not ever knowing who your words might touch?

I thought so. For a time.

Then……I thought… “what if I just do it?” and then… “What if I never?”

To Blog or not to Blog.

Eight years later…I’ve sorted, debated, digested, and am still processing…..

And you came, and you keep coming back, 8 yrs later.

I AM Blogging.

Happy 8 years Barefoot Baroness Readers!

 

 

ttaylor2016