I have been looking back over my personal blog at some of my old blog posts. I am going back a few years. Some were quite comical and actually not too badly written.
Where has that happy and witty blogging person gone I wondered? Well I am still here but I have absorbed so many articles over the years, telling me to find my voice and not do this or not do that, I’ve become too cautious and constrained. I have started following the herd.
Just because somebody has had a smidgeon of success with a style of blogging doesn’t mean it will work for me. Why would it? I am not them, I am still by the skin of my teeth (in writing terms) an individual.
The one good habit I have stuck to is not to write for search engines. That is, not create keyword packed articles and blog posts that I think will benefit me in the Google rankings. They won’t!
Those poor people who are trying to find their voice, be witty, remain professional and write for SEO must find things so hard. I know how that feels, a life in irons, well not quite but you get the gist. I am no creative writer or professional blogger by any stretch but writing an article that comes from inside me can only be original and I gather everyone loves original.
So I am going to take the old cliche – find your voice – and translate that to – don’t try to emulate others – which should set me right for blogging. When we were at school our English teacher would say, ‘write an essay in your own words’. What she meant was don’t copy from a book; or crib from little Joey down the road in exchange for a Milky Bar. No change there then, we all just need to be original.
So I am going to bin the cliches of constraint and start to enjoy sharing my thoughts once again, smiling while I write and writing as it comes.
It’s going to take a bit of practice to get back to normal but today’s the day for breaking away from the herd.
