Nothing much to tell about the title. Just that I am quite hurriedly writing this because of a number of stuff that needs to get done before this day ends because tomorrow already has its own full plate of TTDs (things to do).
Opened a new tab while doing research just now for a paper I am writing when I saw this in one of the links. Wondering the last time I was here and wrote something...as it turns out, its been a long while.
...and as I try to save drafts, I see some of them in there. So that's where all the posts are all this time. Someone's got some major editing and reading to do. Hint: that's someone is no other than yours truly.
I am thinking of ways to keep posts coming in this place. Surely, I have more than 2,000 words to say on a daily basis and I don't get to talk that much to anyone since I work from home. Besides, what better way to share awll the things I read and see than having them here.
This is one place I've long thought of having its own hosting but still having doubts on how to get it all off the ground. I remember asking one blogger how she manages to maintain at least 5 active blogs - 2 of which are award winning - and have time to write for all of them on top of her mom and wife duties. She told me the writing comes very easy once you get used to it.
Well, I've been writing since I was in third grade and started my first blogs with Friendster and Live Journal. I've been a ghost writer since 2005 and started doing that professionally in 2012...but the writing never became easy.
Not that it's gotten harder, either. Its just that it remained either motivated by reward or inspiration.
Now, I am not sure why I keep on blabbering about it when the simple answer is this: I never developed tha habit of "blogging" regularly. Sure, I wrote replied to emails daily, wrote manuals and procedures here and there, drafted contracts and pitches once in a while, produced academic and marketing papers on demand, and wrote rhymes and verses once in a while, yet I never worked on producing blog content regularly. Never pushed myself enough to make it a habit.
And so we for the next 66 days, the habit should be updating personal blogs here and there and there. Make this a pseudorevival of the A Blog A Day Challenge but this time, we'll work harder on producing daily content. The goal is not PageRank but to build the habit of consistancy since I really suck at keeping my blogs updated despite blogging prefessionally for almost 4 years now.
Hope you take this journey with me.
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
A Blog A Day Challenge - Day 1: Write
I saw this post last night on one of my Facebook Groups and the person who made the post simply said she wanted to challenge herself. Then I remembered the challenge I made to myself when I decided to transfer this blog a few years ago and created the links to my other interests about 2 years ago in order to develop my niche - aside of course from the fact that I am one OC freak. This is the very same challenge I made myself when I started my WP blog.
Bethylicious, this one is for my personal rantings and interests; And they called Me Mary is to document all the things I learn and discover as I go through careers, conversations and studies; Rhymes and Verses as an avenue for my inner poet; In search of Nirvana for sharing things that inspire me. I even intended for a cooking+DIY projects+crafts one to be called Bethy's Nook and reserved all my researched and formal writing for my WordPress blog I initially called Pavements and Skyscrapers.
Aside from my obsessive drive to get my writings organized, it was also a strategy to have them optimized since each blog, except Bethylicious and the WP blog, would have its own specific niche. I thought the number of the sites I had would be effective in establishing a more visible web presence. The downside however is that all of them had to be managed and while I had big plans, executing became the biggest hurdle and hindrance.
Now I am stuck with blogs that doesn't have consistent posts.
Add that to the sudden growth and impact of different social media circles then you'll be even more overwhelmed.
Then I have Covey's words echoing in my ear repeatedly, "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." So what is the main thing? The main thing is to write.
The next thing is the purpose of writing. This purpose will help you get the words out in the right platform and shared with a targeted audience. True that a writer does not need an audience as much as he or she needs to write but keep in mind that the writer is an artist and in order for him or her to be true to form and really expressive, he or she must choose the right medium and venue for his or her creative expression.
Aside from the number, the fact that I was mostly writing for a living is also one of the reasons why I have had to set aside my own passion. I have been writing for as long as I can remember and I've had my fair share of praises for phrases but I never truly considered myself as a writer until a few months ago when I became a shadow/acedemic writer. Sure it was fun because I learned as I was writing and I also got paid but the need to bring in more project$ became the driving force behind my writing not my innate need to express in words and not with that much burning passion. It was not until I actually had a severe case of writer's block that I had my biggest moment of doubt as I writer.
It happened some months ago when I got a project. I was given sufficient time to turn it in and the client has even granted me one extension after the other yet I wasn't able to deliver. I was mentally shaking myself in disbelief asking how hard can it be to fill up 30 or so pages with something that was meant to be researched and analyzed. Someone on that team sent me an email that basically says, "...if you couldn't write it, then you should have said so. You knew this was paper was important to the client."
Those two words haunted my writing for the next few months and even now I still find myself stopping short at those two words: couldn't write. I maintain a blog for another client and I have to admit each post has had its own birth pains despite the fact that I am already quite well-oriented on the niche.
This prompted me do a writer's soul searching. And what I found is that writing is simple. It doesn't require one to get published all the time and while a book deal is great, its really not essential. The most important element of being a writer according to experts is that one must write. In short, in order to be a writer you have to do some writing. Hence, a blog a day.
Touchdown for Day 1.
Hopefully, you'll see one again tomorrow and the next day and the day after that...for now I have to go back to writing for a living but I feel great and I do appreciate your time. :-)
Bethylicious, this one is for my personal rantings and interests; And they called Me Mary is to document all the things I learn and discover as I go through careers, conversations and studies; Rhymes and Verses as an avenue for my inner poet; In search of Nirvana for sharing things that inspire me. I even intended for a cooking+DIY projects+crafts one to be called Bethy's Nook and reserved all my researched and formal writing for my WordPress blog I initially called Pavements and Skyscrapers.
Aside from my obsessive drive to get my writings organized, it was also a strategy to have them optimized since each blog, except Bethylicious and the WP blog, would have its own specific niche. I thought the number of the sites I had would be effective in establishing a more visible web presence. The downside however is that all of them had to be managed and while I had big plans, executing became the biggest hurdle and hindrance.
Now I am stuck with blogs that doesn't have consistent posts.
Add that to the sudden growth and impact of different social media circles then you'll be even more overwhelmed.
Then I have Covey's words echoing in my ear repeatedly, "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." So what is the main thing? The main thing is to write.
The next thing is the purpose of writing. This purpose will help you get the words out in the right platform and shared with a targeted audience. True that a writer does not need an audience as much as he or she needs to write but keep in mind that the writer is an artist and in order for him or her to be true to form and really expressive, he or she must choose the right medium and venue for his or her creative expression.
Aside from the number, the fact that I was mostly writing for a living is also one of the reasons why I have had to set aside my own passion. I have been writing for as long as I can remember and I've had my fair share of praises for phrases but I never truly considered myself as a writer until a few months ago when I became a shadow/acedemic writer. Sure it was fun because I learned as I was writing and I also got paid but the need to bring in more project$ became the driving force behind my writing not my innate need to express in words and not with that much burning passion. It was not until I actually had a severe case of writer's block that I had my biggest moment of doubt as I writer.
It happened some months ago when I got a project. I was given sufficient time to turn it in and the client has even granted me one extension after the other yet I wasn't able to deliver. I was mentally shaking myself in disbelief asking how hard can it be to fill up 30 or so pages with something that was meant to be researched and analyzed. Someone on that team sent me an email that basically says, "...if you couldn't write it, then you should have said so. You knew this was paper was important to the client."
Those two words haunted my writing for the next few months and even now I still find myself stopping short at those two words: couldn't write. I maintain a blog for another client and I have to admit each post has had its own birth pains despite the fact that I am already quite well-oriented on the niche.
This prompted me do a writer's soul searching. And what I found is that writing is simple. It doesn't require one to get published all the time and while a book deal is great, its really not essential. The most important element of being a writer according to experts is that one must write. In short, in order to be a writer you have to do some writing. Hence, a blog a day.
Touchdown for Day 1.
Hopefully, you'll see one again tomorrow and the next day and the day after that...for now I have to go back to writing for a living but I feel great and I do appreciate your time. :-)
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