Blogging? - Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

Ben Franklin said that, except the blogging bit. I'll just HAVE to look him up because I'm thinking it's not Benjamin Franklin, founding father of the United States.

Damn. Now I think it IS. The shame...

 Oooooh, I received a worrying e-mail this morning. The title was '4 REASONS WHY YOUR BLOG SUCKS' from the brilliant Men With Pens website. Do you remember? The one written by a woman who calls herself James Chartrand because she received more credibility as a man. (Ssssssssssssss!)

When I saw it, my heart sank. Do I REALLY need to be made despondent on a Monday morning when I've got a lot of work to do? Do I really need my confidence shot to pieces AGAIN?

I steeled myself and read it. It's the masochist in me.

Gothic Ruin 666, Deviant Art

In actual fact, I didn't come off too badly...here were the points:

1. A lack of authenticity
2. Share a story not advice
3. Write for yourself, not others
4. It's time to change the world

The first three points are self-explanatory. The fourth - "really, there’s just one reason most blogs suck: because they write blog posts instead of changing the world," and "A real blogger understands that each piece they publish should be able to revolutionize somebody’s life. It doesn’t matter what they’re writing about. Hell, it could be knitting for all I care."

I write blogposts AND I strive to change the world. Oh dear, I don't mean to sound worthy and grand, but bringing a bit of humour and lightness into people's day and saying things that other people (writers and horse-riders mainly) can relate to so they don't feel as though they're the only one with that particular gripe or challenge or problem...that's what I do. My little drop in the ocean.

Drops cause ripples, don't they?

And my blog still no doubt sucks but I don't really care.

The brain is a wonderful organ...

It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office.

Robert Frost, rather surprisingly, is the originator of this quote. Surprising to me, at any rate. It sounds as though it should come out of one of those smartass business books or might be seen on a T-Shirt or the side of a mug. And now I see he didn't die until 1969, which is another surprise.

This is the Robert Frost I know and love, knew and loved from the very first day of my American Lit course at university.

Here are just the last three lines of one of his poems.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.





 Back to the brain. It does seem to happen to me that I'm full of ideas until I sit down at my desk and then...you can almost hear the glugging sound as they drain away.
Hence - this blog. It gets my brain up and running again. There are worse ways...

I don't just do this for fun, you know.

If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.

...said Confucius.

A year ago today was the first time I wrote this blog.

 I don't know what I expected would happen as a result of starting it. I had a vague idea in my mind that it would give me more exposure as a writer. Has it? Who knows? What I DO know is that I enjoy writing it and more people each day are reading it. That makes me feel good.

It helps me, anyway, by acting as my morning pages:

BAM - I'm in a writing mode as soon as I've finished them. Though whether or not Julia Cameron would count them as proper pages, I don't know. She'd probably sneer.

APPARENTLY to become a successful blogger is 'simple but not easy,' according to Aman Basanti, that extraordinarily well-known consumer psychology writer that you've never heard of. (Successful blogger? What IS that?)



"Most bloggers fail because (like dieters) they can’t stick to their resolutions. They can’t stick out the tough times when no one reads their blog..."

"Most bloggers won’t succeed because they’re unable to do simple things over extended periods of time. Maybe years."

I AM able to do simple things over extended periods of time. In fact, in an obsessive-compulsive way, I find such ritual reassuring.

I've done the seed bit. Now I'm going for the tree.

 

Happy anniversary, little blog!