Life before blog
There’s this funny thing that’s actually not funny at all that happens when you write a blog. You start writing posts in your head.
All the time.
It’s not you. No, no. Not you. It’s just that all sorts of semi-random concepts, incidents and overheard sentences start winking at you lasciviously with knowing come-hither smiles.
Or worse, they pout that if you don’t write a post about them, oh, they will be so sad.
Before you know it, you’re digging around in your bag for the cellphone you never use so you can Jott yourself six post ideas before they disappear into the ether..
Truth be told, I was blogging in my head for at least a year and a half before I launched this baby. Not exaggerating, unfortunately — I’ve got an illegibly scribbled mountain of forgotten genius to prove it.
Of course I wanted to be doing it not in my head. To put this stuff out there in real pixels. Here. With you. Like this*.
*Ohmygod, I’m doing it right now.
It’s just that I wasn’t entirely sure about a bunch of things … and it seemed like I ought to maybe wait until I was at least a tiny bit more sure about some of them. And so it kept getting pushed down to the bottom of the list.
But now …
Yeah, so now that I worked through some of my issues and am actually blogging it up in real life, it’s way more fun than I’d imagined.
But that’s not the point. The point is that now a bunch (does four count as a bunch?) of people have asked to hear my “Here’s how I got over the issues that were keeping me from blogging it up” story.
You know, in the hopes that it will inspire them to get their collective behinds in gear and all that. I’m actually not going to post about that right now. I will at some point, though. Try and stop me.
Right now what I’m hoping for is some assistance from you. If that’s cool.
It’s not that I don’t want to share my story, because it is fairly interesting and probably even useful. It’s more that a. it’s complicated, and b. the people who want to learn from my amusing tales of woe seem to have, for the most part, a very different list of what-ifs than what I was dealing with.
So let’s look at that list, shall we?
I’ve been collecting the big (and small) WHAT-IFs that keep people — some of whom are people who know that blogging was practically invented especially for them — from actually doing it. And what I want to do is address a few of these what-ifs in a series of posts.
So help me out, guys.
Here’s what I’ve got so far, off the top of my head. Well, and off the top of my inbox.
- “What if I get laughed off the internet? No one’s going to take me seriously.”
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“What if the technology makes me feel stupid? I might not be able to handle the learning curve.”
- “What about the freaking time-time-time commitment? I just won’t have the time.”
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“What if I get trolled or harrassed by jerks? Or sued? Because that’s really what I need right now, anonymous heckling from the ether.”
- “What if it’s just winking in the dark and the other gazillion bloggers are already doing it better? There’s too much competition from ‘real bloggers’ and people who know what they’re doing.”
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“What if I don’t have anything original to say? There’s probably nothing new that I can add, anyway. ”
- “What if I start and stop and feel like a failure? It’s pointless to start something I can’t finish.”
- “What if my angle changes? My business is too flexible to define it with a blog.”
And there’s more where that came from.
But what I’d like to know is: what’s running through your head? Is it stuff like this? Other stuff? Is there stuff I haven’t even thought to start worrying about yet?
Where I’m going with this.
Here’s what I’m not going to do: Lecture you, tell you why you’re wrong and how your fears are irrelevant, and then say something like “Get moving!”
Because, as you may have noticed, this is not a tough love blog. It’s not about facing your fears or getting yanked out of your comfort zone or other annoyingly in-yer-face life-coach-ey things.
It’s about consciously paying attention to your “stuff”. So that you can figure out what your patterns are telling you. So that you can rewrite those patterns and do things differently. With patience, smart techniques and as much (but no more) kindness as you can stand to receive in any given moment.
So my plan is to take a measured, non-preachy look at why these anxieties/issues and other scary bits show up, why they’re so depressing (because they are), and then talk about some of the stuff we might want to try.
You know, a few handy techniques to help diffuse the scary and work around it. Or at the very least feel okay with it.
So … whaddya got? If you are thinking about maybe eventually getting around to considering blogging it up, what kinds of things are getting in the way? And if you have a blog, but had to work through a bunch of what-ifs to get there, share away as well.
Or if you don’t have any issues because you blog like a sailor (not sure what that means but it sounds good) but just have some helpful hints, that’s cool too.
May throw in a case study or too for the fun of it. We shall see.
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This is going to be so interesting, Havi — can’t wait to read what your commenters add, your take on it all, and your techniques.
Because whatever/whoever helped YOU start blogging instigated this cool thing that makes me think and smile a few more times a week would be glad that you passed the torch– and just THINK of all the interesting, funny, smart, probing, insightful, talented, useful, entertaining new bloggers you might inspire with your help~!
Maybe this is “Blog Like a Sailor School”?
Count me among those who wanted/still want to hear your blogging story. 🙂
The exposure I got blogging for b5Media rocked – and it almost ate me alive. My business suffered (not to mention my life) while I cranked out 200-300 words per day, 6 days a week. And the 25,000 hits I got monthly? I have squat to show for it. No new clients, no new subscribers, nada. Except exhaustion.
I think I’m still bitter that I got chewed up and spit out for a measly $75 a month. I’m so friggin’ glad I left.
And yet I still hear that gnawing voice in my head at least twice a week saying, “Huh! That’s brilliant. I should blog about it.” And, of course, I don’t. Because I’m blog-free and still recovering.
So my “what if” is a practical one: what if I go to all the trouble to start up a blog of my own (because those are the only terms I’d consider knowing what I know now), and I still don’t get any clients from it? How do I go from web 1.0 (website and e-newsletter) to web 2.0 – and actually make money at it?
Cuz blogging can be fun, sure, but being a leeetle start-up means everything has to have a return on time invested.
@GirlPie – Blog Like a Sailor school? Blog Like a Sailor School! Hope you realize that I now have Popeye singing that in my head. But back to the point. You’re so genius!
And yes, that would be a pretty ridiculously cool side effect if through this thing I got a bunch (or even a couple) new and awesome blogs to read and be a fan of.
@Jennifer – Wow. Yuck. What a miserable experience!
No wonder you don’t feel up to it … you deserve some yummy recovery time so that when you get back to blogging it up, it will be something that supports you and not some annoying, impractical should.
Taking your very practical, thoughtful what-if into consideration! This is a huge help – thanks!
Dear Havi!
It is great to read your blog about blogging! I just started my blog a couple of weeks ago, and I am loving AND it gives me trouble!
I love it, because I love to write and I have so much more to tell! I am running around with my notes book, collecting ideas for blogs, writing them everywhere, formulating them in my head… 🙂
The process of HOW and WHEN I post a blog, like when I feel ready for it, mirrows quite well my own development. I recognized my blogs are about tranformation 🙂 and probably the process of getting out there is also a process and mirrows some of my patterns. Patterns that become more obvious and clear now.
For instance: In fact, I am blogging, but still holding back so much. So how much openess and closeness is appropiate? Where are the borders? Intersting stuff. This is also true in my daily life, how much openess, how much “not telling” is sometimes? Is it a WISE choice, or a choice out of fear?
So keep on examing the stuff people have with blogs, it is so so interesting! When I see my patterns clearly, and they don’t jump on me from behind, I can DO something with them, which is pretty cool and relaxing.
Love, Sandra
Sandras last blog post..The two frogs
Hi Havi ~
Oh so tired here after working all evening …. not sure how articulate I’ll be — which leads me to one of my concerns about blogging: I write like I talk, I don’t feel that I’m particularly good @ writing so what if I blog & don’t sound all shiny, wise & amazing ?
I also wonder if there is a particular etiquette that goes along with blogging ? You know … like a list of “do’s & dont’s”
On the technical side – I wonder what’s involved e.g. would I need my web designer to get a blog kicked off ? He made a place for it on my site, and, I have no idea what to do to activate it ??
On the upside … I love the idea of interacting with folks in the way of a blog; like you, I have many ideas for topics.
I look forward to following this topic w/you.
Linda
Lindas last blog post..Transformative Power of Illness
What’s funny is that the scary bullet points you mention WILL happen. You won’t know what to write, there will be a learning curve, there are better writers than you, nobody will notice you, your focus will change, etc…
Instead of saying “suck it up and deal” I’ll just point out that there are lots of really smart programmers, companies, forums, search engines, and bloggers out there whose mission is to help you.
Nathan Bowerss last blog post..Another broken modal dialog
Havi
What if whatever I say is useless, and unentertaining, and nobody reads it?
How can I come up with a witty lesson every day?
What if I don’t have an entertaining little voice that gives me the cute “come-hither” wink?
What if I hate what I write?
The last one is the closest to the event horizon of a black hole (that’s where time stops and the world goes on without you if you didn’t ever watch Andromeda).
I do want to be of service to my readers. I do love to write. Yes, I am taking your class.
Hope this helps.
Meredith
Havi
My hindbrain was thinking last night while I slept. And I had this thought: What if.. What if all these fears I have about writing aren’t really what I’m afraid of?
I have a two-frame comic strip in my head about my fear, the bad guy. In the first, skinny me (in my head) is yelling at the cops and pointing down the hall, “HE went that way. He went that way. He has a gun!!” In the next frame, the cops have gone and skinny me is sitting down to play cards with HIM, the gun-carrying guy. The gun is rubber and sitting on the table. The two of us are laughing.
That’s really as far as I got. Interesting, huh.
Meredith