Tag Archives: time

Blogging Is Harder Than You Think

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When I began to blog I wasn’t aware of the challenges I would be facing. ’So many people blog all the time, it can’t be that hard!’. I could not have been more wrong.

How do you start blogging?

The first (non) challenge of blogging is what software or service to use. The most popular choices are WordPress and Blogger. Some may go the self-hosted route which opens up many more options, no decision objectively better than the rest.

After selecting your blogging engine of choice the real challenge begins. You have to write.

What do you write about? Guess what, only you know. You’re blogging because you want to. No one told you to blog or what to blog about. As a result the topics at your disposal are limitless.

At least at first. You should probably figure out what your dominant subject will be. It could be blogging about things you know intimately, or you could chronicle your foray into new experiences.

Or you could be like me and refuse to choose. Honestly it’s a stupid decision, one that causes me to curse my stubbornness daily.

Again, it’s up to you what you want to write about.

Have you chosen what it is yet?

Now start writing.

How often should you write?

Again, this is up to you. You’re blogging because you want to right?

I suggest setting an attainable goal for yourself to hit. When I started blogging I promised myself to post at least once per week. It was a goal I felt confident I could keep without burning myself out.

Write as often as you feel comfortable. Only you know the pace you can maintain. But above all else…

Write.

Write, write, write.

So now you’re writing.

Congratulations! Keep it up! Keep going! It doesn’t get easier but you do become more experienced.

With that experience you learn more about yourself as a blogger. You’ll learn that you blog best in the morning, or while on the train.

You’ll learn the posts that you enjoy writing most and the ones people love reading most.

Along the way you’ll pick up some comments, each one just as exciting as the first.

I yelped after I got my first comment on this blog, and I still do. It’s a joy to know my words bring joys to others.

So stop reading and get writing!

And for starters you can write me a nice comment. ;)

Writing to Capture an Emotion

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This morning I woke up with a smile on my face and sunlight sneaking its way past my curtains. Laying on my back, I watched the curtains twitch and slightly move due to the air conditioner blowing against them. There was never quite enough pressure to fully move the curtain, but watching it twitch and giggle from the tickling air was fun enough.

Opening the curtains to begin the day is exhilarating: I always seem to forget the brightness mornings bring. I don’t hold it against myself – the nights are so dark it seems impossible that sunlight would ever return. Even when I wake up in the middle of the night – at 6am – dawn has only just begun to poke its head around the corner. It basks everything in an eerie blue-red glow that I can only describe as the nighttime-daytime hand-off.

And then it’s time to revel in my morning ritual of breakfast tea and morning music. Sipping on the freshly made pot of green tea, while listening to music (that illuminates my surroundings in unnatural sheen of joy), is the moment of the morning that I relish without abandon. For as I sip my tea, and listen to my tunes, I peer aimlessly out the window and rest while awake. I enjoy life as I have been taught: loving and dwelling in all that makes me happy.

For it is these simple pleasures that make the days past while keeping a smile on my face. The time I take to sit and sip my tea is one that nobody can give me. It’s a pleasure that I must take for myself, one that I must protect and appreciate while occurring.

Of course it would be far too easy to gulp down my tea and run out the door, never giving my mind a second to wake-up to the day and its new intricacies. This seems to be the modus operandi that society at large seeks to impress on its members. The get-up, get-going attitude that wears you out before you’ve even begun lunch.

Life isn’t a marathon, we’re all gonna cross the finish line the same way. It seems pointless to rush to the end, knowing full-well what will happen. Why not enjoy the scenery as it passes?

And that’s what I try and do. Each morning, with my hot pot of green tea, and me.