Last week I completed 4 years of blogging. I was surprised I stuck along for so long. The doubts that plagued me when I started are the same that plague me today. Biggest of them being – ‘does it matter?’ Sometime back, I showed a friend, a blog post before I published it, to get his perspective and he simply said, ‘its good. Post it if it makes you feel better’ what he left unsaid was, ‘who cares’.
According to the Internet, the prominent reasons why people blog are: to attract audience, build authority, make a presence, monetize content, network, to tell a personal story, etc. I think this is why I started blogging. To tell a personal story. But, to whom?
A relative while chatting asked how much I spend in maintaining the blog every year and when I told him it’s close to ₹10K, he said, ‘Seriously? Why? Do you make money of it? No? Then why invest?’
There’s a scene in the TV serial ‘The Flash’ where a hotshot journalist of the newspaper Iris works in, compares Iris’ blog to his mom’s blog saying that is not journalism. In one sentence he relegates blogging as a hobby for amateurs, and not ‘real’ work.
Stephen King had a pin attached to the wall to which he plugged all the rejection slips he received from publishers but still continued writing. Harry Potter was rejected by 12 publishers before being accepted by Bloomsbury. Ruskin Bond in one book wondered if his words would be remembered given the number of books being published everyday. Self doubt and rejection seem to be the corner stones of the writing profession. Still, I considered closing off the blog. I needed a ‘why?’
Seriously, why do I blog? I started rereading old ‘blog anniversary’ posts to see what my perspective had been and if I could find reasons. Self doubt & fear were common themes as expected since exposing your thoughts & experiences with the world to judge is never an easy task. But one another theme also came through – I wanted to share my thoughts. ‘Cause I believe(d) someone, somewhere would find them helpful, delightful or simply felt understood and that they are not alone. Even if those ‘someone’ were only the friends I knew. What if even they did not read? I still had to write; I had it get it out of my system. So, I decided to continue writing.
I do not have great plans for the blog. I have no intention of pushing it to gain visibility nor use it to establish any kind of authority on any subject. I just wish to share. It’s my corner on the internet. Stop by, if you like and share it, if you like. But, no matter what, thanks for reading.