Why Do You Blog?

Blogging offers one a forum for communication -- a chance to make your voice heard. A blog also allows the writer to gather her thoughts and try out ideas on others to see how they are received. Blogging allows us to become part of a wider community, to seek out the expertise of others who know more than we and to offer our own advice. Friendships are made through blogging. Sensitive topics can be discussed in a tell the whole world kind of anonymous way. Afterall, there is the possibility that everyone is listening, but how many of our readers really know us personally? Blogging allows us to keep a diary easily, remembering changes in our lives from day-to-day and year to year. We are encouraged in our efforts by responses from others and therefore the diary goes on. It is easier to avoid the journal sitting near my bedside than the computer I use every day anyway and our fans. (Hello? Is there anyone out there?) If you are fairly new to blogging, as I am, blogging can become like a game. How many people can you get to read your words? You can even gain some notoriety or kudos.

Alternately, blogging takes a lot of time. I could be gardening right now instead of writing. Or, I could be working on my next book, looking for my next client, exercising or planning my lunch...(hmmm, I am getting hungry.) Yet, this idea hit me and here I sit.

I view myself as an idea person. I have lots of ideas coming at me all day long. There are too many for me to attend to. When I was getting to know my now significant other twenty years ago, I told him that I wish I had a typewriter in my brain to record my thoughts. (Now I want to say a computer chip instead of a typewriter, but I'm afraid that raises an image of a sci-fi computers taking over humans kind of thing.) Blogging allows me to get out thoughts, like this one, in short bursts. I do not need to make the idea into a major project, yet all my little ideas are working into this wonderful little blog that seems like a worthwhile large project when put all together. Little ideas can make big things...

I convinced a friend of mine to start her own blog the other day and she told me this morning that she began her writing yesterday.. Her husband doesn't understand why she is doing it. (Is he afraid she will say something about him?) Though I have not yet seen her blog, I know it will be very different from mine. In time, she will find her own community of bloggers. It will make her feel good. Her husband doesn't have to understand. She won't need me to read it to think it is worthwhile to do it. We are great friends, but I'm sure our blogging relationships will take different paths.

I would love for you to share the reasons why you blog. Here are some other things for you to possibly share if you respond. How much time does it take you each day? Do you think about your blog even when you are not actually blogging? How do you plan what you will write each day? Do you keep other blogs? If so, what are they about? Where do you see your blog heading in the future? Do you keep a personal diary? What emotional satisfaction do you think you get from blogging? Is anyone disturbed by your blogging? Have you ever blogged about something you regretted later on? Who do you think reads your blog and does it matter to you if anyone reads it at all?