Sometimes I find blogging really difficult.
It’s not that I don’t feel like I have a lot to say, about any number of things — writing, books, fashion, pop culture, politics, publishing, movies — but so often, I allow myself to get caught up in this web of blogger’s doubt. My fingers hover over the keyboard, and my post remains blank. Many questions whirl about in my head:
Should I blog about this?
Can I blog about this?
Is this too uncool to blog about?
How many hits will this get?
How can I craft this to get MORE hits?
Will this post anger anyone?
Am I blogging enough?
Am I blogging about the right things?
You get the idea. And, from what I’ve gathered by observing others, I’m not alone.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the questions of what we should blog about and who will read it and what our stats are and what they should be, that it becomes equally as easy to lose the joy of blogging. It becomes a chore rather than a pleasant task. When we think about our blogs, we stress out and tense up, rather than get excited about generating new content.
That’s part of the problem, isn’t it? Generating new content. Blogging is about attracting readers, building an audience, and watching those stats climb, right? How will we do that without consistently churning out brilliant post after brilliant post?
Well, first of all, no. That’s not what blogging is about.
Blogging is about forging genuine connections with people, whether that’s connecting over some profound, thought-provoking post or a post about edible unicorn poop.
Blogging is about helping people get to know you, and about you getting to know them. Through our blogs, we introduce people to the important things about us — our likes, our dislikes, our favorite books and movies, our dreams, our fears, our opinions.
Blogging is about promotion. Sure, of course it is. Whether you’re a writer trying to connect with readers or a more general blogger just trying to get your opinions heard, every blogger is “selling” something. But this cannot be the focus of our blogs.
In fact, our focus is simple: Blogging is about ourselves, and about the people we want to know. Blogging is an area of life in which it’s okay to talk about ourselves. As I said above, on our blogs, we talk about the things that make us who we are, and by doing so, we connect with like-minded people, or even non-like-minded people, who find us because they disagree with what we’re saying and want to discuss. Blogging is about exchanging content, discovering new ideas, and just plain talking to people we wouldn’t otherwise get to talk to.
Doesn’t that sound like fun? That brings me to my next and most important point:
Blogging is about fun.
If you’re blogging and you’re not having fun with it, if you’re not getting some kind of pleasure out of putting that content out there and interacting with the people who view it, you’re doing it wrong. Blogging is helpful (it makes us better writers!), it’s social (it helps us make new friends!), it’s a creative outlet (it gives us a venue in which to draw poorly rendered unicorn pictures!).
Blogging should not be stressful. When blogging becomes stressful, it is no longer fulfilling its purpose. It has been perverted by whatever skewed expectations we have placed on it, by our examination of statistics and hits and number of comments, by our comparisons to other blogs, by the unreasonable standards we hold ourselves to. Every post must be a work of art, of ART, we think.
No. No, it doesn’t. All any post has to be is true to the spirit and character of the person writing it.
I have to remind myself of this every once in a while, when I place unrealistic expectations on my blog content. Blogging is not a chore or a job. Some people say blogging is a do-or-die necessity for writers today, and I honestly don’t know what I think about that. I just know that I love consuming and creating content in this way, that countless blogs have inspired me, taught me, moved me, made me laugh, and made me think. And these blog authors didn’t do that by pretending to be something that they were not, by writing what they thought they should have written or by writing a post specifically crafted to go viral. No, the best blog posts are when the author is most completely him- or herself.
Forget the stress, the expectations, the daily slog through statistics.
It’s okay to be yourself. It’s okay to blog yourself.
I’m reminded of the line from Field of Dreams (i.e., That Baseball Movie That Seriously Freaked Out My Childhood Self When The Little Girl Choked On The Hotdog):
“Build it, and they will come.”
Similarly, when we are ourselves, people will come. No one likes a phony. But everyone likes someone who is openly, unabashedly true to self.
The same holds true for blogs.
So, the blogging moral here for you (and for me): Relax, have fun, be true, and, in the immortal words of Genie (wait for it, it’s about thirty seconds in):
(SEE? Aladdin wasn’t true to himself and ended up causing a whole bunch of nasty ruckus because of it. You don’t want to do that with your blog, do you? DO YOU?)
Like this:
Tags: Aladdin, Being True To Yourself, Blogging, Connections, Genie
Claire is a Texan living in New York City! She writes fantastical stories, and her daemon is an ocelot but sometimes a unicorn. When presented with the choice to high five or not to high five, she will always choose TO HIGH FIVE. Her first novel, 
Thank you! I have this problem :/ Or rather, I did and I do have this problem, until I’m realizing that “gosh Laura you’re doing it again!” and calm down. But still. I know exactly what you mean, and it can be discouraging when you ramble on about what you like and no one comments. Blogging is about interaction and all those things; you said it perfectly
*until I realize
(forgive my insomnia-inspired grammar)
Great post. I had this problem last year. It wasn’t until my friend reminded me why I started to blog. I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one who thinks about this, and sometimes stresses about it. I had a 2012 goal to just let go of all inhibitions and just have fun.
Here’s to a great year of fun blogging.
Man, Claire, you are describing what was in my head with amazing precision. Thank you for reminding me of the purpose and the fun of blogging. Now all I have to worry about is if anyone likes me–just kidding! Thankfully, I got over that years ago.
Great post. Thank you for sharing and letting all of us know we are not alone.
This was exactly where I was a few weeks ago, when I wanted to rant all over my blog but thought I couldn’t. Then I listened to what I was saying – MY blog. I can do what I want there, just as you can say what you want here!
Also, Aladdin is my Disney Prince Boyfriend of choice. Followed closely by Flynn Rider. I like the cheeky thieving kind, but I can’t figure out what that says about me as a person… hmm…
I think we might be related. I’ve been having this over the last couple of weeks. Don’t really know what to do about it. Pressure, pressure, pressure…
This is such a common problem. We’re bombarded all the time with messages from “THEM”, the so-called authorities, who say we have to have a blog to build a platform, we have to have a platform before we can sell books, we have to have to have to.
I did not start blogging to build a platform. When I got into it, gosh, nearly a decade ago (on several, long defunct blogs on platforms I”m not sure exist anymore), it was a way to share my thoughts, my feelings. It was a way to make friends. It was, for me, kind of like in You’ve Got Mail where Meg’s talking about sending words out into the void. Sometimes the void spoke back, and that was awesome. Most times it didn’t, and that was fine too.
When I decided to start taking myself seriously as a writer about six years ago, I started a writing blog. Again, it was for me. A place to share my thoughts and hopes and dreams about writing, to chart my progress, and hopefully stumble across some other folks doing the same who could support me in my endeavors.
I guess I made the shift three or four years ago into blogging more, I suppose, professionally. Bought my own domain name, picked my pen name, and started treating myself as a professional writer instead of an aspiring one. And while I did expend a lot of effort writing what I hoped were thoughtful posts, by and large, I still was doing it FOR ME. Over time my blog has morphed a bit. And frankly, you never know quite what you’ll be reading about when you stop by. Writing, often. Books I’m reading. Trends in publishing (traditional and self-publishing). Operation Goddess in Training. Or sometimes just the crazy or crappy day I had. But I blog almost every day, and it’s a rare thing that I have trouble coming up with something to talk about. I like blogging because I still do it for me.
I usually break the so called rules. There are experts out there who propose that we have specific topic brackets, a posting schedule, and that we focus our efforts. And yet almost everyone I know who follows this formula (and yeah, I can spot a blogger who follows these tenets a mile away because it IS so freaking formulaic) struggles to come up with content. And frankly, many of them fail to come up with anything I find engaging. Because it’s obvious they aren’t having fun. The formulas, the rules, the “they say” does nothing (in my opinion) but stifle creativity and fun. Which makes for a generally not interesting blog.
These experts say that blogs sell books. I just flat don’t agree. Blogs don’t sell books. And I really don’t think that readers read author blogs most of the time. They want the newsletter to tell them when the latest release is going to be. No, what blogs DO sell is YOU. And YOU are what sells your books.
So to wrap up this absolute tome of a comment (sorry for hijacking), I reiterate what you’ve already said. Be yourself and have fun.
I am still pretty new to blogging, but I have tried to keep a laid back attitude about it. I know some blogs post everyday, sometimes more than one post a day, but I don’t feel pressure to do that. There are also some great blogs that won’t post for days a time, but I still really like them. I see blogs ranting about random things, and that’s great too. You get to know them more. People create blogs to express themselves, so I think that we shouldn’t worry about the things we post. I think as long as you do what is good for you, your readers will keep coming back. I don’t like to cause myself unnecessary stress, so if I have nothing to post, I’m not going to worry about it, and if I want to have a rant about something random I will. (And I have) Thanks for the great post.
All of those questions have plagued me, especially recently. I tend to shelve the posts I really want to put out there, because those (and other) nagging questions pop up. It’s almost like I’m censoring myself for fear of what others might think, or say…like I’m walking on eggshells or something. I can’t pinpoint when I started to feel like this, but it is certainly frustrating. Somewhere in the last 6 months I forgot that I got into blogging for the fun of it and for creating content that reflected who I am . Thank you for the much needed reminder to get back to my blogging roots so to speak!
Thanks. I needed to hear (uh, read?) that.
Thanks, everyone, for reading and commenting! I’m so glad to know that I’m not alone in these blog-related worries.
@Kait: I totally agree that blogs don’t sell books. It’s a fun way for us to express ourselves and for interested readers to learn more about us (and a great venue in which to offer freebies to fans!), but . . . that’s about it.
@Serena: Have you read Tamora Pierce’s Alanna books? I feel that you would have quite the thing for George.
@bookchelle: *clinks glasses* Cheers to that!
@Mhairi: *hugs* It’ll be okay! Take hold of that pressure and punch it in the face! With CHOCOLATE.
*HUGS* to all of you, and happy blogging!
Great post Claire! I found it through Kristin Nador’s blog, which spoke to ‘relaxing’ when writing one’s blog. I am super brand new at this with only 3 posts under my belt, and I’ve been feeling extremely anxious that I don’t have anything brilliant to say after spending days, then weeks trying to educate myself with what the pros tell me to do. I started my blog stating that I’d post recipes, how-tos and bits and pieces of fun and, after reading this post, I realize that I can do exactly that. I went off on a tangent of fear and have not posted for over 2 weeks because I was afraid I’d be boring or write off the subject of being an author but heck, I’m just starting out on my writing career and don’t have much to say on the subject yet. Now I’ll try to just keep it real and write about what I know. Sheesh, I still might be boring or the subjects might be goofy but at least I know that it’s okay to write from the heart about stuff I Iike! Thanks for this.