I have this theory about bloggers.
I think that the ones with the most readers (girls like Dooce, Jasmine Star, Young House Love) are the ones who are the same type girls who would say to me in school “Want to see what’s in my purse?”. What they had in their purse always seemed infinitely more exciting than what was in my own. I would never ever randomly say that to someone, not even my best friend. Their lip gloss or chap stick and whatever else always seemed charmed while whatever I had in mine felt boring and worn out.
So it goes with writing. Those people who have a ton of followers seem to spill their guts or just talk about everyday stuff and we read it. It’s hard for me to think that anyone would care to read about my day to day life. I guess a little bit of mystery goes a long way with me too. So, I’m probably never going to be one of those girls. I’ll probably not list out what I had for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks on my blog and tell you every little thing. That’s just not me. However I am trying to find my voice here. A couple things I do know is that I want to be real. I want to be encouraging. I want to show you the beauty in everyday life that we so often miss. I want to mix up some practical stuff with some really beautiful stuff and some funny, clever stuff. Maybe I’ll tell you a couple secrets and maybe I’ll share my dinner or lunch some days or show you something cool I found. I hope you will want to see it. That’s the fear after all. You know what I mean? If I ask you if you want to see what’s in my purse…what if you say no?
3 Comments
Oh Merdie birdie 🙂 Your purse is so great! God created you with a lens for the world that is uniquely fitted for your eyes. Only you see out those lenses so please feel compelled to share because I know first hand that what you see and the way that you see it has such great value. You have a knack for finding beauty in unexpected places. These sweet little treasures at times eventually get found by others but I believe you find it first and sometimes you keep your mouth shut. So do share! Share with your honesty and your head held high so people can hear you. God MADE you the way you are. You are PRECIOUS and RARE! Both your eyes and your voice are unique. So don’t worry about those other purses 🙂
I swear, we really ARE twinsies aren’t we? It’s hard to find your “voice” in when you’re starting out blogging.
I’ve been blogging (albeit sporadically) since… 2007? Ish? It never seems to get any easier and I’m always wondering if people like what I have to say.
Eventually, I started to loosen up and just be. Me. And I didn’t really care about how many followers I had or if anybody ever read it. My first attempt at blogging was back in 2002 or so. It was on Xanga. I think… It was early days then. And it was AWFUL. I’m pretty sure I deleted it.
And then I moved to Microsoft Spaces or somesuch. Egads. I shudder to think about those days. Eventually I moved to blogger and ported my blog posts.
In the beginning, I’d write ANYTHING. I ended up creating a private unsearchable blog for stuff I wanted to get off my chest but didn’t want the entire Earth to see. It was my version of a journal.
It took a while to suss out what I wanted to talk about and segregate certain things into specific blogs. The upside is that because my blogs are specific to a certain topic (more or less) the content doesn’t get jumbly. The downside is that I blog less because of it.
How I found my voice… I gave up any shred of pretense about my writing. I’m me. I’m snarky, irreverent sometimes, and sometimes self-deprecating. I think the key is to know your own self. Your strengths, weaknesses and not be afraid to share them. It’s like those silly ecards on Facebook. Someone will post one and we’ll identify with it – maybe comment “Hey! I thought I was the only one!”
So it is with blogging. There will be people out there who resonate with you and your style. Write first for yourself and the rest will follow. Peter over at Male Pattern Boldness wrote a great post yesterday or the day before on writing a sewing blog. I think his advice is pertinent with any style of blogging, really.
thank you both so much – can’t tell me how these words of encouragement mean to me!