Wherefore, whence, and whither.

I hate to be another millennial making an abrupt aside to go "meta," but I do want to pause and figure out what I'm doing with this blog. 

I feel like, every time I reboot this blog, I post some self-assessment swearing up down how much different things will be now—and most notably, claiming that this time I’ll stay consistent and not fall off and all that. (Which is, probably, the hardest part about blogging—being consistent.)

But in the meantime, I’ve thought of a few areas to mull over. I don’t plan to really edit this post as much as I have done with the most recent two, but I’m ok with that. Let me know what you think in the comments!

 

1. Content and tone

Finding one's voice as a blogger is, usually, more of a process and less of a decision. Over time, it emerges as one figures out what they like writing about and what’s resonating. I can speak to that a bit already, tho, or at least wonder at it some.

So far, if these last two posts are an indication, I want to be a bit philosophical. Nothing too philosophically weighty or complex, but certainly thoughtful and reflective. But I also want to springboard where possible from my own life.

Both posts started with my own life or lived experiences, and wandered into a deeper, broader issue that was on my mind. And I’m ok with that. What audience that’ll garner me, I’m not sure, but it’s enjoyable for me (if hardly groundbreaking).

Older posts on this blog were sometimes very grounded in my personal life and everyday interests/fixations, and I’m not opposed to going there again, but some of my personal life right now is not something I want to write too deeply about. So I may wait a bit before going back to that kind of posting; we’ll see.

 

2. Process

With the last post, I also had to catch myself from writing a lot more stuff and a lot more deeply. I had to take a break at one point, enjoy some coffee, and ask myself what kind of post I wanted to write—what writing blog posts meant to me, for now at least. And I came up with “A blog post is, at most, a casual essay.” It’s allowed to have a point and, however loosely, argue it, but not much deeper.

So despite the urge to print the post out and mark up the margins with substantive edits and notes and craft a formal outline to tie it all together, I decided to identify what question(s) I was trying to answer, discern if I could answer them within a reasonable word length, and then figure out if I’d done so as I edited. Believe me when I say that counts as me “keeping it simple.”

Part of this is different, I think, from how I used to blog because I’ve been more structured and methodical in these posts. I feel like older posts here were generally either edited for, yes, some structure but edits were mostly focused on readability; or they rambled on shamelessly and (in younger days) chaotically. But now, perhaps with age or professional experience or a secret third thing, I feel myself naturally hanging the paragraphs together in an orderly way.

 

3. Medium

Then there’s the question of where I want to post these and how. I’ve always used Blogger because it was free, but it’s also fairly basic. And that may be fine. This blog may not need all the WordPress bells and whistles, at least not yet, since it’s just “the wandering thoughts of a curious soul” as my tagline says at the top of the webpage.

But maybe a new domain name would be fun; I’ve got some in mind, and they aren’t expensive. And it wouldn’t be so bad having the increased flexibility with the template/theme that comes with the WordPress platform, I guess...

So, I guess here I’m also wondering what kind of blog I want—do I want a wowie zowie one to get thinkers (and publishers?) to notice me and comment, and does a fancier platform get me there? Or do I continue on here, maybe revamping only parts of this site?

 

4. Older content

Every time I come back after a blogging hiatus, I reflexively hate what I posted before and want to hide or delete it all to protect my current "image" out of embarrassment. I’m not fully sure why; I have some ideas, but nothing comprehensive.

I looked over several of my last posts, and most of them seem fine, at least based on the titles and what I remember. But then I dug farther back and... the urge to purge intensified. I may just start over with a new site after all to get a fresh start; maybe bring over the last several posts plus other notable ones and build on from there. Or maybe I hide the embarrassing posts and keep things on this site; there are currently 340 posts to go through tho...

 

5. Promotion

This is actually kind of fun for me, maybe. I love social media (mostly), so using it to promote my blog seems like a fun time. I even came up with some Canva graphics for my last two posts on a whim, and they turned out pretty good in my opinion.

But just how much of a social media push do I want for all this? How much do I want to post, when do I want to, how often will I repost stuff to re-engage the content, etc.?

I don’t mind following up a post with sending something on Bluesky and Instagram, but idk how much effort I want to throw into it—how much is reasonable for my purposes and likely to net a fair return. I love attention and validation, sure, and social media could bring a bunch to this blog, sure, but what’s the healthiest balance of time and energy for me?

 

6. The reason

Why would I want to blog again? It’s a big question, really; I touched on it at the end of my last post. The remarkably short answer is: I enjoy writing. I haven’t done it for personal ends in ages, but I enjoy it. As a youngster, I dreamed of being a writer, which isn’t where I’ve landed (yet).

Blogging seems like a reasonable, realistic form of writing to engage in, for now at least. It’s fun and satisfying (mostly), it's relatively low stakes and low commitment, and I want to do it. I’m just not sure how well I’ll keep it up, exactly. 

As I said at the start of this post, consistency is tricky; it's one of the biggest parts of a successful blog but also one of the toughest parts to maintain. I’ve told myself posting weekly make sense, but I’m just not sure if that's too often (too high of an expectation) or if I’ll stick with it or whatever. What if I don’t have time or run out or ideas or whatever?

So that’s a big question to figure out, tho perhaps not an urgent one.

 

7. The Goal

So, this is a question I've been tossing around in the background since restarting. What, if anything, is the goal of this blog? Am I blogging to process issues and ideas that are on my mind, am I looking to develop these into essays down the line and get them published, am I seeking validation and attention from friends and strangers, am I hoping to find a community and engage discussion? I'm really not sure. (I do suspect #1 and somewhat #3 are up there.)

It's an important question, tho, and directs some of the others, too. Like, if I'm trying to get published, a gussied-up look and (generally) serious approach might help. If I'm looking for engagement, a catchy URL might be of use. And so on.

 

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So, I guess I’ve got some thinking to do, and I'll probably keep these questions in mind as I continue posting. See how things feel as I go; maybe check in once in a while. 

I do see that a few of these considerations touch on possibly revamping this blog one way or another; whether it's starting on a new platform or deleting old posts here or splitting types of content across different blogs, it's on my mind. Maybe I can "earn" a revamp or whatever if I can stay consistent long enough to warrant the time and effort and demonstrate this isn't just a phase. Or maybe that's creating too much pressure and expectation...

But what do y’all think? Are any of these issues bigger than others? Do you think I've lost the plot with some of them?

Image by Johanna Nikolaus from Pixabay