Why I Blog

One of the members of a writing group I belong to asked:  why do some of us blog and how does it affect our writing?

First and foremost, I do it because it’s writing and communication-both of which I love! When I went to college and had to do a paper, I loved to sit before an empty sheet of paper (yeah, when I went to college, we didn’t have the ubiquitous lap- nor desktops). To me it represented limitless possibilities, and I couldn’t wait to fill it!

I feel a deep, inner drive to communicate. Growing up, one of my family nick-names was “Motor Mouth.” Yeah, I was (and still can be) quite talkative and can strike up conversations with pretty much anyone who’ll talk back. My blog title reflects that.

I do not post blogs because I have to, to create followers nor a readership nor a platform, though I understand the need for all of that, and that posting does, indeed, further those goals. Writing of any kind is a deep, inner, communicative need for me. Is it brought on by some past or future reincarnational issue?  Who knows.  All I know is that whether through genetics (my mom is a writer/poet/editor), I just have to scribble things down on paper and on electronic media. Can’t help edit everything damn thing I see (cereal boxes, signs, books). And I post blogs because it’s simply yet another form of writing, and (if you missed it) I love writing!

It’s a journey.

Blogging is a short, extremely immediate form of writing, instantly available to the world. As I’d mentioned in a recent post, I’ve discovered my posts are literally read all over the world (as I’m sure all blog posts are).

How cool is that?

In blogs, there are no extra-personal editors–just you–so readers get to see the writer first-hand, no  middle-folk.

And blogging’s friggin fun! It’s whatever’s important at the moment! From the gut! Shootin from the hip! As my mantra goes (if you’re gonna have a mantra…), I truly believe all forms of writing helps all forms of writing. It helps you write quicker, more succinctly. Don’t know about the rest of the blogosphere, but that’s what I strive for, anyway.

I also try to approach things differently, attack issues from a different POV than I see normally posted elsewhere. But that’s how I’ve always operated: trying to show another way things could be.  I don’t intentionally try to stir up controversy, but inherent to what/how/why I write, that is inevitable. I look at it this way: so many out there are so free with dispensing their own views on everything from religion and politics to diets and whanot, why can’t I also be afforded the same respect, courtesy, and right? I’m not saying anyone has to believe as I do, but I do ask that within everyone’s personal belief systems each questions what they believe…perhaps consider that something else might be going on in the background…that not everything is at it would outwardly appear.

To be tolerant of other views.

There you go.  Feel free to comment your reasons for posting–and enjoy it!