A Reintroduction to my blog
On my commute during rush-hour traffic last morning, and in the haze of flipping stations, I stumbled across an interview with fantasy author Brandon Sanderson. It caught my attention, giving me the much needed rejuvenation to survive the dreaded 5-minute stoplight, and not only that, it continued to overstay it’s welcome in my head the entire day after. And it was all because of one offhand comment on writing – one that has prompted me to publish here on my blog for the first time in two years.
“Even if you came to me and said ‘you know what, you’re never going to sell a novel’, I would still be writing them. I am a bigger success if I die at age 100 with 100 unpublished novels than if I just give up on this thing that I love. If I have to get a real job and write as a hobby, I’ll be okay with that.”
- Source: Brandon Sanderson, via tidbit heard on BYU Radio broadcast
Giving blogging a second chance
What Sanderson had to say on the podcast resonated with me as someone who created a blog that I only give attention to every ~2yrs. As a student, and self-described lover of the craft, I am someone who does write a decent bit and yet almost never share/publish it.
I wanted to reflect on that. Perhaps it’s the pressure that comes with having strangers reading my work (with flashbacks to my papers filled with red marks). Or maybe I just want to avoid turning a pleasurable hobby into something that feels like work. It may even be the simple fact of not having a goal in mind on subject matters such as “what tone should this website take?” or “what audience do I want to attract?” Or… maybe it is something else entirely. It was not something I was able to get to the bottom of during that traffic light needless to say.
Regardless of the reason and the further introspection required on my part, I have come to realize that I haven’t given the act of blogging a fair chance yet.
Like a tennis player transitioning to pickleball, I think it is about time to try this thing out and give this new-thing-on-the-block another go.*
*I am aware this is an awkward analogy. I do not play any sports, but if it was one thing that I learned from the thousands I spent on business school, it's the importance of sport analogies within the world! ;)What I write about, and who I will write for
Going back to the blog itself, I wanted to lay down some of my thoughts that I have about blogging here. Regular consistent blogging is not something I have done before, so I believe it is time to give some more thought on this modality of communication.
In writing this post, I had to consider my audience for this blog. I believe one core element to my struggle in writing here has been the lack of a defined/stated audience. So with that said, I will have to fall back to what Brandon Sanderson said. This blog is primarily being written for the audience of myself.
My note to readers, aka what to expect
As a writer (in the broad unofficial sense anyway), I have had to take on many different writing styles and cover many different topics in my life. I may adjust my tone depending on the post, and will probably have a different subject matter each time (unlike my previous posts that largely followed a technical style with similar lengths, audience, and topic matter). I may be silly, professional, terse, verbose, or some combination. What is most important is that I am writing for myself, with the coincidental reader stumbling upon it as a pleasant and adjacent upside.
For now, I wanted to say that this blog will end up being a hodgepodge mix of many different things. Perhaps it will take the form of technical writing as I have done in the past, chain-of-thought informal musings, or perhaps a compilation of armchair research that I like to do when bored and navigating my college’s free research databases. I don’t know what tone or topics I will strike, and without a doubt it is something that I have to find through experimentation. All that I do know is that it is time to focus less on “crafting my personal brand image” and focus more on doing what feels right and authentic.
Concluding thoughts
With all that said, what made me really want to write all this?
Primarily I need to hold myself accountable. I am going to try to I will write (at minimum) a blog post every month for the remainder of the year. And what better way to hold myself accountable than to make that goal public. (plus, by posting this on the last day of the month, I was technically able to make the deadline for August, woohoo!). It is just the kick in the derriere that I needed to get into action and keep myself going for a reasonable time period.
A lot has happened since I last posted here. I switched majors from computer science to accounting, got my first internship, explored new hobbies, dropped old ones, and have changed in those subtle, yet important ways that come from being in college. And with these new developments in my life, there have been a couple of essay ideas sitting in the noggin’ just waiting to be polished and take form. On the off-chance someone other than myself is reading this, I hope there is something to be had in this and future posts! I am looking forward to new beginnings on my writing journey!