Amazement.
2011 is the 5th consecutive year that I have had a blog, of one sort or another, up and regularly updated. Within the last few weeks I unceremoniously binned my latest blog. I'd had enough. I wasn't being inspired by anything around me to warrant an idea of a post. I conceded that maybe this was the time for a break from blogging or it could signal the end of my venture into blogs for good.
It's not a pretty business posting blogs that either stir little in the ways of reaction/reflection or perform like a friendly poltergeist. Blogs are two-a-penny and unless your willing to regurgitate the same content (or if you don't stick to one topic) your experience as a blogger can be one lonely existence.
With each passing year (or blog even) I try to justify to myself why I bother using a blogging platform to converse with others about the ideas I have. Within the realms of Twitter I am more likely to strike up a discussion, argue a case or agree a point than I ever will via the minimal subscribers that visit my blog. So why bother? Why put aside so much of my time, over the last few years, into an activity that can look fairly fruitless?
I like to explore different ways of getting words and ideas out from inside my head but I don't judge this to be a cathartic exercise. I'm not looking for a release of emotions but rather a stripping down of how ideas and actions are arrived at - what makes us tick. Blogging is ideal for this kind of deconstruction of thought and I had high hopes that my initial enthusiasm would not wane. But during the cycle of my previous blogs, I seem to lose my way and begin posting on subjects that don't fulfil those original ideals. The bloggers mantra that 'to post often will often produce a bigger readership' is skewed and can harm as many bloggers as it aids. Pushing idle tat out as posts should not be what I'm about. Blogging in a singular subject is like a condemning my mind to a thought prison with no parole.
So why begin afresh with WORM if you had given up blogging?
Good question. Blogging is a major part of my make-up and without it I feel rather lost. To use a poor example; for me blogging is like the smoker that wants to show he's given up something bad for his health but doesn't want to admit that he really enjoys his habit. Does that make me in denial?
My approach to WORM will be different to how I have approached my previous blogs. I have no defining principle behind why I will be posting here. While I have announced the topics of coverage or what I will or will not be covering in the past, this will not be the way I do things here.
This blog will be as naked an attempt as possible for me to hold onto my discipline and not to stray into the world of tat. I hope, as a reader, you can keep me on the straight and narrow.
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