On the fourth day of the Ultimate Blog Challenge I find myself thinking about why it’s a good thing for me, and indeed why blogging is so important to me at the moment.
Ever since I learned to read and write, I’ve been a reader and a writer. I would read cereal packets at the breakfast table, notices, leaflets, whatever I could get my hands on as well as all kinds of books. And I have always written: stories, poetry, journals. I love words and language and used to joke that I would relish the job of writing the instructions on shampoo bottles.
Somewhere during my English degree at Cambridge I became overwhelmed and lost confidence in my ambition to be a writer. I did work as a technical journalist for a while – putting words to other people’s ideas – but various personal problems put an end to that and I pretty much gave up the idea of writing commercially.
Funnily enough, personal circumstances have brought me back to writing. Of course, over the last 25 years I have continued to write, but not in a creative way, and not intending to share the results. I have written for work and enjoyed it (lawyers write a lot!) and done a lot of therapeutic journaling. Now, two things have combined: my need to create a career that fits with my health and family, and my growing need to communicate. Yes, I finally have something to say. In fact, I find I have rather a lot to say!
A very wise lady who is mentoring me suggested that I increase my blogging, and that this would help me find, develop and establish my voice. In the last month or so, that’s what I have done and it’s most definitely working. I have found it moving and exhilarating to read the comments of people who have read – and liked – what I’ve written, and the most wonderful thing of all is when someone thanks me, tells me that I have helped in some way.
Another unexpected effect is that the more I write, the more I have to write. For me, blogging is a very different process than writing formally, for example a report or article. When I blog, I scribble a few notes at most, then just pour it out. Formal writing requires a more precise and measured approach, feels a little more constrained. The freedom I allow myself when blogging has encouraged all sorts of creative ideas to surface, and I think this has also been crucial to my development of my own authentic voice. When I write, it has to be me, to feel like the real me inside, without artifice or self-consciousness. And I really do feel I’m getting there.
So when I found out about the Ultimate Blog Challenge, 31 straight days of blogging every day, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I’ve no idea where it will take me, what I’ll be writing about in a week, two weeks or three. But I have no doubt it will be an intensive growing and learning experience and that I’ll be grateful I made the effort!
