It’s weird, that post title. Blogging for blogging’s sake.
It’s completely open to interpretation. You can read it negatively: it could mean that you’re just showing up because that’s what’s expected. Punching in, publishing a new post, punching out, going home. You’re blogging to be included in blogging because that’s what’s done. You’re blogging so you don’t fall off the blogging radar.
You can read it positively: it could mean that blogging is the purpose itself. You’re not (necessarily) blogging to share a lesson, or a life hack, or a ‘top ten songs to listen to while you eat bananas’ list because that’s what you think you should do. You’re blogging to write. You’re blogging to share. You’re blogging to connect.
You can read it one of these ways, or any other way.
Weird. You bring your own attitude and feelings to that post title. Blogging for blogging’s sake can induce eye-rolling or fist pumping.
I’m wavering between interpretations. I keep showing up here, blogging. But is that good or bad? Am I doing it because I feel I have to? Or am I doing it because I want to?
I’m wavering. And when I waver, I go back to the start.
—
I started blogging to find my voice.
I am one of those stay-at-home mums who completely lost herself to being a stay-at-home mum. People say not to lose yourself to motherhood, but I did. Totally.
And that’s okay. It’s better than okay. It was necessary. Motherhood was my passion reset button.
If that pesky little global financial crisis hadn’t come along in 2008, my life would probably look very different right now. The organisation I worked for wouldn’t have been acquired by a Sydney-based one. I wouldn’t have been made redundant just before (finally) falling pregnant.
I loved that job; it was a great company, I had fantastic colleagues and the work was the right mix of challenging, fun and innovative. I wouldn’t have wanted to resign from that job to be a full-time stay-at-home mum (I think).
But I never had to make that decision. I didn’t have a job to return to. I could have applied for something new, but a) I didn’t want to work full-time and there were very few (if any) part-time roles being advertised, and b) I was actually enjoying the at-home thing.
Pre-kids, I didn’t think I would. I don’t mean that I didn’t think I’d enjoy motherhood in general. Just motherhood of the constantly-with-the-kids variety. I didn’t think I would revel in the play, the craft, the learning, the teaching, the rediscovery of the world at the micro level.
I thought I’d be climbing the walls with boredom by the six-month mark, but instead found myself relieved not to have to make the decision to either return to work or resign.
I felt a small itch, and started to miss my voice. But instead of scratching that itch with corporate work, I discovered blogging (and started freelancing).
And upon discovering blogging, I discovered that I had been missing my voice for longer than I realised. Because when you spend your life writing for corporates, you’re not using your voice. You’re using theirs.
With You learn something new every day (this blog’s original name), I blogged every single day about whatever I’d learnt that day. It wasn’t a big deal. Some posts were 20 words long. Others 100. And others almost 1,000.
Some posts were deep. I learnt about myself, motherhood and children’s development. I learnt about language and life.
Some posts were so completely undeep that calling them shallow feels wrong because it still suggests a degree of submersion. I ‘learnt’ about the Olympics, Christmas bonbon jokes and the tax advantages of buying ridiculously expensive garden gnomes for your investment properties.
As time went on, my focus moved from the lessons to the writing itself. I simply enjoyed writing, and the topics stopped mattering. What started to matter more were the people reading that writing. People connecting with the words, understanding them, and engaging with me to discuss them.
That connection is still the most important thing. But you need content to make the connection. And what that content is matters.
And so it goes around in a loop. The eternal frustrating loop of blogdom. I need to connect; I must write to connect; I should write something relevant; my post must be useful; I can’t just blog about anything; I can’t blog unless I have something important to say; I’m not connecting anymore because I don’t have anything to say; I need to connect.
Time to strip it back. I need to connect. But words can connect. Small words. Big words. Important words. Less important words. ANY words.
Not every post has to be a brilliant lesson, insight or tip. Not every post has to mean something more than HEY, this is on my mind at the moment – what do you think?
Thanks for the reminder, Maxabella. Thanks for the reminder, Veggie Mama.
There are so many reasons to blog. All of them are valid.
My main reason to blog is to write, and to connect. And that’s enough.
Do you blog? What’s your main reason for blogging? What brought you here?
Beautifully said. Like you, I started blogging because I felt I’d lost sight of me in my motherhood journey. My blog was to be my creative outlet and challenge. I sometimes forget my reasons for blogging and get a little off track, but thankfully I always seem to be able to come back to my initial why x
Me too. It’s weird, I never seem to lose my blogging mojo for long. But it always feels like a long time, because the blogosphere moves so fast.
My blogging journey has been a bit this & that (following what I thought I was supposed to do!!) since day 1 2015 my mantra is “I blog to connect”‘& that’s how I continue! Yay for blogging! D xx
Hip hip hooray for blogging! Thank you.
I love this! I’ve been feeling the need find why I blog and I think it’s for the connection too!
Must head to your bloggy home to read your take. x
More than enough. We do this for us x
We do!
You just condensed a ridiculous amount of words into a sentence. Thank you. (Ctrl+C …)
It’s so true that we bring a lot to mere titles, let alone to blogging in general, to useful versus connecting, to stat watching that makes you nervous or comments that make you fist pump.
I think if I had to narrow it down to one thing, I’d have to go with I blog to express.
I love the outlet that blogging gives and the connections I’ve forged.
I love the people I’ve met through blogging, in airport lounges on the way to blogging conferences, online, on the phone, at meet-ups, the special ones who have become friends, my bloggy colleagues, people I can admire and love to read.
It does seem to go around and around, in the depths and shallows, daily posts and tumbleweeds.
The beauty of it is that there’s room for all of us. Yay for that!
I think it always will go around and around. But then, so do most things. Perhaps it’s just more noticeable online because there’s always someone writing about which part of the merry-go-round they’re on.
I’m listening. x
And bless you for that. x
Your love of writing shines through in all of your posts Em. That’s what people connect to and why we keep popping by to say hi xx
What a lovely comment. Thanks, Tash. I love these things called words that we get to play around with!
Yes, and the reason is simple enough: because I like to write. I’m under no illusion that my writing is of any quality, and nowadays most of my blog posts are short and full of photos, but I do it because it’s an outlet for my hobbies and passions.
Put yourself under that ‘illusion’, Giles. Your writing has always been quality.
You’re too kind Emily, thanks.
I was going to comment something insightful but instead I’m laughing and laughing at the best self-insult I’ve heard: “Some posts were so completely undeep that calling them shallow feels wrong because it still suggests a degree of submersion.”
So I’m starting a new concept – commenting for commenting’s sake 😉
Thank you. Self-deprecation is NOT a good thing to be good at, but hey, I’ll take it!
After nearly 4 years, I blog for my love of writing, books & connecting with others. My blog has has seasons of hits & misses.
I love being a mum but the time has come for me to gain more of a balance between parenting, family, career & writing. Love your post.
I blog for the same reasons! I just flicked through my posts, and the book reviews seem to outnumber everything else. And I’m more than okay with that!
OMG are you me? Started blogging for the same reason and also got made redundant from a job I loved – -n my case, when I was 34 weeks pregnant and just about to start maternity leave (making me a less than desirable employment candidate). So here we are. Several years later and I managed to find my old self in there somewhere, under all the Lego and shitty nappies. Thank you blogging.
TWINS. I wasn’t yet pregnant when I was made redundant (and after having tried for years and taking all sorts of medication, hope was low of it happening at all), so got a contract role. But I was only there for nine months before ‘maternity leave’ (resigning).
This is so awesome – imagine I’m giving you a virtual standing ovation! You totally nailed it with that last comment, you blog “to write, and to connect. And that’s enough.” Me too, but the connection is so important, because it’s the connection that keeps me coming back to read those blogs and those words, any words.
Ooh, a standing ovation! Not sure I’ve ever had a blogging standing ovation before! Thank you!
You’re so right about writing in the corporate world not being your own voice – I feel exactly the same way and left behind my career in PR more than 18 months ago to spend more time with my young family. But I knew I couldn’t walk away from writing so I set up my blog as a creative outlet and to hopefully connect with others in a similar situation to me. I’m really loving these blog posts going around about ‘useless’ blogging and reading what inspired bloggers to start in the first place as that’s what provides the underlying connection to follow a blog in the first place.
I still enjoy writing for corporates. I’m just glad to have had the opportunity to discover my own voice, as well.(Or rediscover it, perhaps. Discover the confidence to use the voice I was too shy to ‘own’ back in high school and uni.)
Isn’t it funny I look back at the very first post I wrote and I really can’t even remember why I wrote. I can only imagine it had something to do with having two yr old twins, my eldest had just started school and I really wasn’t enjoying the job or even the people I worked with. All that said I wasn’t coping being a stuck-at-home-mum either.
I haven’t ever really written consistently I think because I would get on a roll and then bam not have anything to say or I judged what I would write before I would write it and put it down for others to read. Or that would ever be worth reading and turn my blog into you know one of those amazing uber successful ones lol …
This last year I write to get things out of my head. I want to connect with others who might also be struggling and let them know they aren’t alone. I think I write for connection, I write to hopefully inspire and I think I write for me (but I am really not sure about this – because that feels selfish and really wanky!)
It is funny to look back at the first post. I was so conscious of making mine MEAN something that it’s almost (unintentionally) funny. I like the getting things out of your head aspect. That’s why I write in general.
I was just re-reading your post because I knew amongst all of the posts I had read on this theme I had read somewhere that someone had said “should”. Don’t you think “should” is one word in the English language that is so loaded with guilt.
E.g. My “job” right now is getting well, recovering from my breakdown but because I am home all day long I look around and see all the jobs that I “should” be doing like washing, ironing, cleaning, you name it anything that keeps me from the one thing I really need to be doing focussing on me and getting well.
My first post is awful! In fact probably most of my posts until the last year were really not great. I had a massive 6yr break between my first three posts and when I wrote again and they all really feel to me forced. Ahhhh we are our own worst critics. I know why I don’t write regularly it is a fear of failure. I am scared that I will write all of this stuff and no-one will care but on the other hand I don’t want accolades either gosh my head is a mess! Nothing like a fear of failure and success all rolled into one!
Thanks for coming back. Should is awful. I feel the same shoulds – I work at home, and the unwashed dishes mock me from the kitchen bench, the dirty clothes mock me from the laundry, and EVERYTHING mocks me from EVERYWHERE. I hear you, loud and clear. x
Love this Em. Its all about connection and the creative outlet for me! Xx
Thank you Shannon. Loving these posts!
I started blogging because I missed writing. I was a journalist before a mum. Writing is so deeply part of me that without it I feel lost. Connecting is a bonus. Thanks for blogging. It’s a pretty fab tribe we all belong to X
It certainly is!
I blog because I want to and because I’ve always written in some form or another.
Brilliant.
I love your writing, Em! For me, writing is a way to organise my thoughts and stuff. The fact that others read it amazes me 🙂
Thank you, Amy. I love your organised thoughts.
I never knew the origins of your blog before and REALLY, REALLY enjoyed reading the story here. So yes it’s so true that sometimes we need to remember why we started to blog and shift our focus off being useful and adding value to making connections and sharing a bit of ourselves and just writing from the heart. xo
Thank you so much, Min! We don’t always have to stick to our original purpose in blogging, but it’s nice to remember it.
Ahhh thank you so much for this Em. You pretty much summed up my thoughts. Blog to connect, and blog because simply I need to write! Similar background story here to you. After bubs #3 I am slowly working my way back to the blog this year xx
Enjoy your return! Take it as slowly as you need to.
I blog to connect and love that I have met so many like minded people and have been presented with some wonderful opportunities. You have written it perfectly! Keep at it, blogging for blogs sake that is!
Thank you Ashlea.
I’m doing exactly that Em. I’m blogging every day in April to try to rediscover my voice and my blogging mojo.
I started blogging because I loved writing and I didn’t know how else to put myself out there. But, I’ve slowly cut back over the last 3 or so years and lately have only been doing book reviews. But I’ve struggled and felt a little unfulfilled because I wasn’t letting my authentic self out (and yes, I know that sounds wanky!).
So – am blogging EVERY BLOODY DAY in April to see if I start to feel more like ‘me’ again.
I love this, Deb! Will visit and check out a few. I hope you feel more like yourself. x
I miss the connection of blogging but not enough to return to it at this stage.
Fair enough, too. But still writing. x
I love this as I think most bloggers at some stage start to forget why we started this in the first place. It can all become about stats and sponsored posts and the pressure gets too much. Well, thats me anyway.
There’s always someone who seems to be ‘achieving’ more with their writing or their blog. Just got to keep the reasons in focus.
Love your blog Em. I blog because I love storytelling.
Thanks Mrs W! And that definitely shines through your blog!
I love reading your writing Em. I bet you’re glad you didn’t return to that corporate gig now. It is a real honour and privilege to be a part of our children’s lives in the way that works best for us. I blog because I love to write, share and teach. Oh, and have a little fun too.
Thanks Bron. I think I’d still enjoy the corporate gig – especially as I’m sure they would have welcomed me back part-time – but I’m certainly happy with life.
OMG Em! I just realised that you used to be called YLSNED – I used to come across your posts from time to time. Ah now it all makes sense…
I feel like a useless blogger when I do posts like Taking Stock, or Wraps ups, instead of more relevant activity
ideas or parenting stories.
Haha, yes the old YLSNED glory days. Using the term ‘glory’ loosely.
I think the power of #uslessblogger is that we can Just Write. Go on, just write. You are so good at it xx
Thanks Lisa. Yep. Just sit down, think some thoughts, and put them out there. Love it.
Hi Emily. I came here via Veggie Mama. I wanted to discover some new blogs, because I know there are so many good ones out there. I was also interested to read a chatty post, rather than something trying to teach me something useful (which are good too, don’t get me wrong). I blog and I recently did a little reader survey to find out what my readers liked. Almost all of them said their favourite posts were about my daily life, stories from my life, rather than any crafty how-tos etc. I was surprised and delighted by that. When I think about the blogs I enjoy, it’s mostly these ‘this is what happened today, isn’t it weird/inspiring/irritating’ posts that grab me. Anyway. I like to connect with people out there in the wide world, and also to write, and to take photos, so that’s why I blog. Nice to meet you via the internet! x Isabel
Thank you so much for visiting! I like all kinds of posts – chatty, useful, anything! Depends on my mood. It’s something I have to remember when I feel like I don’t have anything to say. Nice to e-meet you, too!