Here it is: My blog … Started only a mere six years after blogging reached the height of its popularity. You see, it was in 2006 that Time magazine put a mirror on its cover and declared "you" as its Person of the Year. The staff at Time determined that 2006 was the year that Internet sites like YouTube, Facebook and MySpace (remember that?) and other user-driven formats — like blogs — really blew up in popularity.
So yeah, I'm a little late to the blogging party. As someone who lists "writer" as her occupation, I'm a bit ashamed that it's taken me so long to start my own blog. In fact, I wouldn't have even started this if Saint Paul Media hadn't given me the push. And by "push," I mean I was given an ultimatum: Either maintain a blog or you can't write for us anymore.
It's not that I don't like blogs. I like them very much, especially ones that are either laugh-out-load funny or extremely personal (as in, personal to the point of "TMI"). And it's not that I don't have anything to say – thoughts swirl in my mind constantly, and I often find myself editing them in my head so that they read better on paper (or on screen, if you insist on being literal).
So why has it taken me so long to start my own blog?
Well, I guess I've been a bit scared. What if my writing's terrible? What if people find my stories — and therefore my life — boring? What if I make so many grammatical and editing errors that no one will hire me in the future? What if my posts inspire mean comments that I'm not mentally or emotionally prepared to handle? What if I reveal things about my life (or someone else's) that should be kept private? And, worst of all, WHAT IF NO ONE READS THE DAMN THING?
These questions were running through my head as I browsed my Facebook newsfeed the other day. Then I stumbled upon this Ira Glass quote, which had been posted by a friend:
"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it's just not that good. It's trying to be good, it has potential, but it's not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn't have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I've ever met. It's gonna take awhile. It's normal to take awhile. You've just gotta fight your way through."
This quote gave me great comfort. It's OK if some of my blog posts suck. It's even OK if no one reads them. If nothing else, this blog will force me to write, and the more I write, the better writer I will become. It's inevitable that I will write things I regret, and that I will look back on some blog posts and cringe. But at least I'm pursuing something creative, something I actually love to do.
Blogosphere, here I come.
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