Why Did I Start Blogging? – The Big 5 Challenge – May 22, 2014

I came across this question yesterday which I was about to pass by as of course one of the possible answers is in my about page…

That page though is just a partial answer.  I’d already opened a blog a few years earlier at Blog Spot but it didn’t go very far.  I didn’t know what I wanted to write about, basically.  I thought maybe it’d be cool to write about some of those things I’d come across so often on Facebook, but didn’t have space to write about.

Back then, I tried writing in English and Italian.  I wanted to explain to both of my worlds the differences between the American and Italian culture.  However, I was really not up to the chore, for chore it soon became.  I also added some recipes…the best of both worlds.  Besides, it wasn’t easy to post with them back then…you actually had to know how to create your text and lay-out your blog etc.  Basically, I got bored and the blog drifted into no where land.

I’ve always been a talker rather than a writer. I loved debate and like to look at both sides of an argument uhm that would be subject for you English-speaking persons. I’ve held conferences at odd times through-out my life, taught English at different levels (including lit) and now for over the last 4 years I’m guiding an English conversation class.  I often have to do a lot of the talking to pull out responses from my group.  It’s all ad-lib actually and outside of preparing something to read, I rarely prepare a class, which is what’s so much fun in teaching conversation! I’m happy to say that its become a great success.

One of my students last year opened a blog and wanted me to do so too.  She asked me to write about Mali…at the time it was a big news sensation and I’d held a class on current events and spoke about the post colonial African problem.  I wrote two posts about Mali, got no response, and then wrote about some other things.

I began to read other people’s blogs though and came upon the first prompts…I think they were actually the WP Daily Prompts. I soon discovered that I could write poetry…and then short stories and flash fiction.  For a brief period I did get sucked into the competition aspect of blogging…getting good stats, wanting to see those likes and basically losing site of the writing for the pleasure of writing.  I think that it’s basically an induced fixation and if you’ve been blogging for a while with WP you know what I mean.

So in answer to why I started blogging … well I guess it was just happenstance.  Why did I keep on blogging is probably the better question to answer.  I stayed on because I liked what I was writing, it opened new venues to my personality which I didn’t realize existed and the creativity aspects stimulated me,  from creating photographic galleries to haiga and onwards to prompts and poetry, these all hooked me.  Then there are the other writers who fascinate me with their inventiveness and talent. Being introduced to new poetry forms and genre which are often new to me is exciting. All this holds me here.

Now, I feel that the day hasn’t begun unless I write at least a few words. I like bantering with some of my readers and a few friendships have grown which otherwise never would have existed and this is nice.

What about you…why did you keep blogging?  Oh I meant, why did you start blogging?  😉  Georgia aka Bastet

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The Big 5 – Why did you start to blog? found at Across the Bored