I Like to Write
I've recently discovered that I like writing.
I suppose I've always known, but it's never really clicked until recently. Throughout school, my written work graded higher than my verbal work, and I prefer to send a text message or an email rather than make a phone call. A large portion of my daily communication is done through messaging apps. It’s not something I ever gave much thought to, but after some much-needed self-reflection, I’ve come to realize that written communication is my preferred method of communication.
With my writing, I have the chance to review and edit my thoughts before my intended reader can get a look at them — a luxury that I don’t have with my verbal communication. In the middle of a conversation, there’s usually a certain rhythm and flow in place, and it’s this precise flow that prevents me from taking the time needed to properly refine my thoughts before I speak. If I spend too much time thinking in between responses, I’ve ruined the pace of the conversation, I’ve now become awkwardly silent. If the topic of the conversation has changed, the thought I was working on is now irrelevant.
Of course, these aren’t issues that completely inhibit my ability to participate in a conversation. That’s not the point I’m trying to make. For a large majority of conversations, this isn’t even a problem. It really only becomes noticeable when the conversation takes on a more serious tone. When it becomes more thought-provoking. When it becomes more personal. It’s these instances where I wish I had the opportunity to write out and prepare my thoughts beforehand.
The other reason I’ve decided to make a blog is that I have a bit more free time because of COVID-19. Like many others, I was laid off from my job, which means that I now have a newfound void in the middle of my daily routine. To help cope with this sudden emptiness, I decided to look for new ways to keep myself productive.
One of the things that I started doing is writing down my thoughts. This is now the first thing I do in the morning when I get out of bed. Sometimes I’ll have a topic picked out ahead of time and I’ll write about that, other times I’ll freestyle it and write about whatever comes to mind in the heat of the moment. At first, it seemed like such a trivial task that I’d forget to do, but it quickly became commonplace for me. I find that it helps me get a jumpstart on the day. In combination with a hot cup of coffee, it helps to stimulate my brain in the morning and keep me mentally alert throughout the day.
So What?
Now you’re probably wondering, “Peter, what does any of this have to do with making a blog?”
Well, my response to that would be that on the morning of June 19th, 2020, the very topic that I wrote about was “why would I create a blog?”
You see, I’ve been meaning to create a blog for quite some time now. I never really knew why I wanted to make a blog. All I knew was that I wanted to make one. I think that because I didn't quite understand why I wanted to make a blog, I told myself that it was just a passing thought or a phase that I'd eventually grow out of, that I'd move on to wanting to do something else later on. This initial phase started a few years ago.
So, back to the morning of June 19th, I decided to jot down some thoughts about why I wanted to make a blog and why I haven’t gotten around to doing it yet. I started with the latter because it was an easier question to answer.
I never got around to it because I didn’t think I had enough time. I thought that it would be some grandiose project that would eat up all of my free time. I told myself that I didn’t have anything to write about and that even if I did, nobody would bother reading it. At the time that I was writing down these reasons, I didn’t realize that I enjoyed writing yet. The reason I never got around to making a blog was that I used these excuses and instead spent my time with hobbies that I knew I had an interest in.
For the sake of finishing my morning task, I started to write out some potential reasons for why I wanted to make a blog. Here’s what I came up with:
- Having a blog could be an interesting side project to keep me both busy and productive.
- The process of creating a blog would provide me with a basic, and I mean basic in every >sense of the word, understanding of what it would be like to set up and maintain my own >website.
- A blog could be a place where I could write about stuff that interested me. Stuff that I >normally wouldn’t write about in a workplace setting. Stuff that doesn’t come up in my >everyday conversations.
It wasn’t until a couple of weeks later that I came to realize that I genuinely enjoy writing. Jotting down my thoughts every morning started to become more of a habit than a chore. I began to notice that it was becoming easier to write out my thoughts each morning. I then circled back to my notes from the 19th to address the excuses I previously listed.
Will creating a blog be too big of a project?
If I break the project down into smaller portions such as getting a hold of a domain name and think of each post as an individual project, it doesn’t seem as daunting.
What if I have nothing to write about?
I could write about whatever interests me as I’d just like for it to act as a place I can use as a creative outlet.
What if nobody reads this?
I’m writing for myself and nobody else. Although it’d be nice if people enjoyed reading what I write, that’s not my personal goal for this project.
On top of these new reasons to make a blog, I think having this project live online will serve as a good way to hold myself accountable. After all, it has taken me a couple of years to kick this project off. I’m hoping a little bit of extra accountability will help me regularly update this blog.
Again, Why Make a Blog?
I like to write and this is a medium that helps facilitate that. That’s why.