In May 2013, I started my blog. It’s hard to believe that’s more than seven years ago. My first post was a Jake Bugg album review based on his debut self-titled album.
The initial goal of the blog was to get my writings I had done in the years prior, whether it was poetry, fiction writing, nonfiction writing, papers I had done for school, and so on, to one centralized place, and accessible for me for whatever purpose.
But also, I like writing about literally anything and everything, whatever is striking my whimsical fancy on any given day. That means it’s sometimes goofy, sometimes serious, sometimes fun, sometimes dark, sometimes more of a rant than a blog post, sometimes it’s political and perhaps controversial; whatever the case is, I just enjoy writing. And most importantly, I desire to keep myself in a regular mode of writing.
The blog between 2013 when I kicked it off and 2015 served as that purpose. And I think over time because of my regular posting (I posted 416 times in 2013, 287 in 2014 and 283 in 2015), I gained a decent audience for my little blog. That was neat.
But in 2015, I got more into the professional journalism world than ever before. As such, I became hesitant to expose my employers and myself to unwanted attention due to some of the more political and controversial items on my blog, so I took it private, which killed off a lot of connection to the blog. But worse, I stopped posting regularly. In 2016, I only posted 29 posts. In 2017, only seven. In 2018, only four times, and last year in 2019, only seven times.
The last three years of virtually zero activity combined with that period I went private effectively killed some of the momentum I had started in 2013 through 2015, and worse, got me off of the mode of writing for fun and beyond the work writing I was doing.
I feel as if it’s May 2013 again, and I’m back to square one with the blog in terms of building it up on its terms, and in a weird way, rediscovering writing for fun?
And I missed it. This last month since I started writing and posting to my blog more regularly with food, book, movie, TV and product reviews, as well as other posts about depression and my personal life, have been fulfilling and something I desperately needed. I needed a purpose again (and the reason for that will eventually be a blog post) after being lost for the first half of this year.
I also needed to learn that I can still write on the side despite writing professionally. When I was blogging in 2013-2015, I had journalism jobs, but they weren’t my main job, so it made it easier to write on the side. Once I started writing thousands of words per week full-time, I thought I was too mentally drained and incapable of writing on the side.
I underestimated myself, of course.
The blog now, as in 2013, has become my purpose, and sense of fulfillment. I’m enjoying myself again (mostly). I’m writing again.
So far in 2020, and again, I only started writing again for the blog in late July, I’ve published 76 times. That’s already more than the previous four years combined (47 posts), with four months still to go in the year.
And yes, I know what you’re thinking. My point in highlighting the post counts since 2013 isn’t to suggest quantity over quality. I’ve readily admitted and am comfortable with the idea that not every post I post is going to be some great piece of writing or contribution to the literary world. If your thing is one brilliantly written post a year for your blog, that’s your thing.
I’m saying, I need to be in that regular habit. It helps me mentally. It helps me mentally to get over the perfectionism in me to want to write a perfect piece every time, put that aside, and just write what’s on my mind.
So for those of you have started following me since late July, reading, liking and commenting on my posts, I appreciate you joining in the journey with me as I rediscover my blog, the purpose it gives me, and to complete the cornball trifecta, myself.
I’m thankful for you, and thankful for this blog and platform. Here’s to more posts in the future!
Milam's Musings 