Why I Write / Message in a Bottle
Nov. 16th, 2021 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerAs I was cleaning up old notifications today I came across a reminder about something I wrote in a friend's journal about her goal of posting to her blog daily. I set a similar goal myself a few years ago. Mine was to average one a day. Since then I've met that goal most months. I even upped the goal to averaging 1.5/day. I've met or exceeded that most months, too. (Note that this post is my 24th in November, and today's the 16th, so I'm right at 1.5/day.)
To focus solely on a number, though, misses the point. Why does it matter what the frequency is? I.e., Why do I blog?
The answer to that was buried in what I wrote about about overcoming the reluctance to spend time writing that's born out of worry that nobody will read what I write. "I am sufficient audience myself," I wrote. Oh, I write for an audience of greater than 1. I like it when people read my blog, I like the discussions that can emerge in comments (sadly so rare) , but if neither of those things happen it's okay. It's still worth writing for myself.
What's the value to me? Let me start with a small story.
I remember a long-lost friend of mine, Ivis, telling me more than 25 years ago, "You're a thoughtful person. You should keep a journal."
I thought about her suggestion in the moment but didn't act on it. Internally I kind of scoffed at it. Back then "keep a journal" meant writing things down on paper. Or writing them in generic computer software (like a word processor) that wasn't particularly well designed for connecting thoughts together. Both took time. And time was my major objection. As a relative young'un I didn't feel like I needed to spend time writing down my thoughts and memories to preserve them for later. Back then I still had all my memories preserved... in my memory!
Memories fade over time, though. That's a truth that practically no young person grasps. And it's true even for a person with strong memory, such as I've always had. So while I started this blog primarily to share with friends, the reason I continue it is to share with my future self. My blogs are messages in a bottle... to me.
To focus solely on a number, though, misses the point. Why does it matter what the frequency is? I.e., Why do I blog?
The answer to that was buried in what I wrote about about overcoming the reluctance to spend time writing that's born out of worry that nobody will read what I write. "I am sufficient audience myself," I wrote. Oh, I write for an audience of greater than 1. I like it when people read my blog, I like the discussions that can emerge in comments (sadly so rare) , but if neither of those things happen it's okay. It's still worth writing for myself.
What's the value to me? Let me start with a small story.
I remember a long-lost friend of mine, Ivis, telling me more than 25 years ago, "You're a thoughtful person. You should keep a journal."I thought about her suggestion in the moment but didn't act on it. Internally I kind of scoffed at it. Back then "keep a journal" meant writing things down on paper. Or writing them in generic computer software (like a word processor) that wasn't particularly well designed for connecting thoughts together. Both took time. And time was my major objection. As a relative young'un I didn't feel like I needed to spend time writing down my thoughts and memories to preserve them for later. Back then I still had all my memories preserved... in my memory!
Memories fade over time, though. That's a truth that practically no young person grasps. And it's true even for a person with strong memory, such as I've always had. So while I started this blog primarily to share with friends, the reason I continue it is to share with my future self. My blogs are messages in a bottle... to me.
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Date: 2021-11-17 03:24 pm (UTC)✔