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| Image by Steve Hankins, via Flickr/Creative Commons |
I am not a poet.
I used to be. But verse and I parted ways long ago. We broke up in a bar, ironically, in the middle of a spoken word open mic night.
Sitting there in my chair at a tavern named Rudyard Kipling I decided to dump poetry.
This was not a bad breakup. We both knew it was for the best. My heart was elsewhere.
I wanted to be a columnist. I wanted to write opinion pieces and reported essays that would change people's minds and even their lives.
For awhile I had the chance to boast the title I coveted and I wrote a bi-weekly column for the newspaper I worked for in Louisville, Ky.
Then I quit my job.
I quit my job to teach literature. And though in this new job I spent my days and nights devouring words, the writer in me was still hungry. At one point I thought I had starved her to death.
One day I stopped feeling like a writer.
Through all this I had a friend to turn to -- blogging. We became pals in 2008. Our friendship was easy and fun. And as we got closer, blogging began to help me find my feminist self.
Our relationship grew more serious; my passion for blogging grew more intense. We became more than friends. Blogging became much more than a hobby.
Like a new lover who gives you the courage to open your heart again, blogging gave me the courage to once again call myself a writer and reminded me what being a writer really means.
I was back to carrying around a notebook of ideas as I did when I called myself a poet. I was back to writing for writing's sake, and not simply for an audience or for money. I was back to writing simply because I couldn't help myself.
And together blogging and I birthed something beautiful -- See Jane Write.
Blogging is the love of my (writing) life.
And this is why I blog.
I feel the same way. I love blogging. I've been doing it since the last 1990s but have only taken it to the next level and "seriousness" over the last few years. I love the community aspect of blogging as well. LOVE IT.
ReplyDeleteI still consider myself a new blogger (May 2013) and I'm quickly falling in love with it. I love how I can make up the rules as I go. Blogging is a place where I can just be me. I'm quickly falling in love.
ReplyDeleteYou know, writing for writing's sake is the best kind of writing. I feel a little pressure with blogging because it's also publishing, and ANYONE could access it. I don't want to embarrass myself with bad writing should an audience actually show up, but blogging just to write is a joy.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by my blog, ladies. Mariam,
ReplyDeleteI understand what you mean. I feel that pressure too but I see it as positive peer pressure. Writing for the sake of writing does not mean putting out crap. Blogging should be where we work on our craft and work at getting better. I think that pressure you feel, Mariam, is what helps make your blog so good.
Love this! It took me a little while to fall for blogging myself, but now that I've got a more defined editorial calendar, our relationship just keeps getting better.
ReplyDelete