Another New Year… another attempt to re-engage with writing… with blogging, actually.
Truth is, I’ve been writing a fair bit, and drawing a little. What I’ve not been doing is sharing these here. Why? Not sure. A number of reasons come to mind:
- Public vs Private Writing – The appeal of my writing being available to the wider public has waned. I largely write for myself, and when there’s reason to share wider, the other digital mediums available to me, like Facebook, has seemed to meet minimum requirements.
- Digital vs Physical Writing – I’ve always had a thing for stationery, and I made a conscious decision a few years ago to start using the many cool diaries and journals I’d bought or had received as gifts from people that knew of my affinity for such things. Personally, I find the act of physically putting pen to paper, especially quality paper, is extremely therapeutic… and there are many studies showing the cognitive benefits of this multi-sensory approach to writing.
- Backlog of Unprocessed Photos – My other creative outlet, and content generator for this site, photography, has also been neglected for a number of years, so it’s not been a fallback option. I’ve got thousands of photos that I need to process from our time in the US and travelling through Europe… but I’ve not had the time or the tools to give them the attention I feel they deserve… and how can I justify spending 15 to 20 minutes blogging, for me, if there’s other stuff that needs to be done?
- Everyday Stuff – On the topic of “stuff that needs to be done”, there’s always heaps that needs to be done around the house, or at work, or for someone who needs a hand… blogging doesn’t even rate a mention on a priority list.
- Other Creative Outlets – As well as the aforementioned physical media taking me away from this site, my efforts in the podcast realm take up a chunk of the little spare time I’m able to create each week.
So… all of this being true, and still relevant… why am I even attempting to re-engage? Because I miss it, and there are aspects of the physical writing that frustrates me, eg. not being able to easily search through my writing. So, I’m going to continue to write, and draw using my stationary, but many of those will be also shared here. I have a website, I should use it. I’ll also continue to use Facebook because that’s where everybody is… and I’ll keep podcasting, because that’s the non-family related highlight of my week each week…
We’ll see how successful this attempt is. But even if it doesn’t last… what have I lost by trying? Here’s to my endeavour back into the world of blogging.
