Blogging Like No-One Was Reading

On Monday I started a blogging experiment. I didn’t hold any expectations. All I knew was that I’d painted myself into a corner with all the blogging “shoulds” I’d bought into. I’d slipped into believing in everyone else’s thoughts about how you should blog, and I’d disregarded my own. And so I’d stopped blogging.

I genuinely had no clue what to blog about. I’d sit down to write a post, and I’d find myself staring out of the window and the ships lining the horizon, the flocking gulls, the changing light as cloud cleaved from cloud, the white crests of waves in the far distance, the multicoloured graffiti on the redundant lighthouse…. and then I’d turn back to the screen and the empty text box still waiting for my words.

Then last weekend, I got cross. I reminded myself that I didn’t live my life according to other people’s ideals and rules and guidelines and expectations. Why should I write my blog that way? And who were these other people anyway? Did they even exist? Or were they just manifestations of my resistance? Wasn’t I really just projecting my own inner critic onto nameless internet avatars?

So, how did I want to blog? What did I want to write about? How would I blog if I knew no-one were reading?

These questions were at the heart of the experiment. And for the last 5 days, you’ve seen the results. All brief posts. Some only images. Some only one sentence. Small stones. Tiny poems. Musical interludes. Stray thoughts. Self-portraits. Articles revisited.

I took the pressure off to write “substantial” posts that were relevant to my business offerings written in accessible yet entertaining and unique style, and rediscovered my love for blogging.

I remembered that I wrote poetry. I remembered that not all creative offerings needed to be laboured over – some births are easy – some births are effortless. I remembered that the only person who had the power to curtail the joy I find in writing, in the sharing of that writing, in blogging itself, with numerous “shoulds”, was me. And I wasn’t buying into that anymore. I’d found something richer, something freer and something infinitely more expansive.

All this to say, I’m continuing the experiment. I was concerned that some might find that I was “too much”, but I’ve shoved that thought into a box. I can’t write or live or love the way I was born to if I continually worry over whether I’m being “too much”. I’ll blog my way. Because I can’t do it any other way. And that’s ok.

But this whole thing has left me rather fascinated with blogging “shoulds” and what it might mean for others to release their blogs from the restrictions they’ve unwittingly placed upon their practice. What would you write about if you shook off all your restrictive beliefs about how blogging should be done? How would you blog if no-one were reading?