Tag: writer

My Blogging Journey

I don’t think I have ever made time to tell you, properly, how I came to start my blog. I’ve mentioned bits and pieces amongst other posts before, but that is all. Next month my blog will be two years old – quite an achievement! I want to take the opportunity to look back to those early days and see how far I’ve come along in that time.

Before I get that far though, I need to tell you a little about me. You need to understand this – I have always been the person to get excited over new projects but drop them as soon as any level of commitment is required. My mum was always keen to remind me of the fact growing up. It may sound harsh but I’m glad she did. I can always count on my mum for the truth, especially if it’s what I need to hear.

 

So how does the person who cannot commit get this far?

It goes without saying that I have always enjoyed reading, but after I left school and joined the 9-5 workforce I fell out of the habit. Instead, I’d spend my evenings and weekends playing games on my laptop or watching TV. I still play games now, but far less than I did. Even after I moved into my own place my time was spent in a comparatively unproductive way.

Something happened to break that cycle. It’s not the nicest of stories to tell because it began when my mum fell suddenly ill. The details are private business, but all you need to know is that it was serious. She was treated in hospital for about two and a half weeks; it is during that time that I changed my habits. It may sound totally cliché but it really is true – changes in habits can become long term lifestyle changes.

I was still going to work after mum fell ill. She could only have limited visitors at a time so we had to take turns. I started work at 8:30am and worked through my lunch to leave early. That way I was able to spend as much time up at the hospital as I could. I was getting home at around 9pm and still have to catch up with everything at home. I was even doing some shopping and ironing for my dad too. Rather than committing to an hour of TV so late at night (I was too tired for that), instead I sat in bed and picked up a book. This all happened in January too, so I was coming home to a cold flat. Who doesn’t want to go to bed when it’s freezing?!

I confess that I fell asleep reading more than once during that time. The flexibility of being able to read for ten minutes or an hour, however much I wanted, suited me. I had also just picked up and stuck to Terry Pratchett’s first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, at that point. In no time I rattled through the first books of the series… and I am still going now!

Even after mum came home again I kept up the reading. As horrible as that time was for our family it is the starting point of catching the “reading bug” again.

 

My Blogging Journey…

Four months and twenty books later, I decided I wanted to talk about my re-discovered hobby. There isn’t really anyone as bookish as me in my life, so my blog has proven to be a great outlet. Getting into the habit of writing took a little bit of time; I started my blog in April but I didn’t really put a schedule in place until August 2017. Up until that point, I was still finding my feet and posts were pretty sporadic.

One thing I can tell I have developed in the two years (almost) I have been blogging is my own writing style. I looked back at some of my earlier posts when I migrated my blog to a self-hosted site last year. Just for a giggle, here are some links to some of those earlier posts. Perhaps you will see what I mean when I say that I have come on leaps and bounds: –

The Green Mile – Stephen King
Little Indulgences
Current Reading List: June 2017

Ignore the gross formatting issues, for which I blame migration because I can promise I would NOT have posted block text. I know for a fact it made a lot of my images disappear too. Look at the way I structure the posts and my use of language. It’s nothing like my writing now. At least I don’t think so…

Making time to write regularly has improved my skill. It’s a change that has even been noticed at work. I get compliments on my writing, and regrettably volunteered to draft anything that falls out of the ordinary. Templates are great, don’t get me wrong, but some people just don’t know how to write things like that from scratch as a result of dependence on them. I digress.

I think I have made vast improvements from those first steps, and I am not ashamed to admit that I am proud that I have stuck to it. It’s a habit that has become so ingrained that not reading or working towards a blog post is alien to me. I miss it when I take a break. If I am taking time out, I try to fill in the gaps beforehand.

I cannot deny that at times it is hard work, but it is worth the reward. I began writing my blog for myself and for the most part I still do now! It’s nice to get a few likes and comments along the way too. More importantly, if I can inspire just one person to pick up a book and discover the joy of reading, well, I consider that a job well done.