1 year ago, i have thought i could write 2 blog posts every month when i wrote my first post on my blog. Turns out i have written 3 articles per month on average. Even though i can't predict how it will shape up in May 2022, i wanted to take some time to think about the situation today. I wondered what my blog posts and blogging brought me and what is has changed or showed to me. This post will be similar to the first blog post i have written, as it will be post of my inner thoughts in the shape of a monologue :)
Back when i was a 12 year old kid, my Turkish teacher used to ask us to write a composition. Of course it wasn't easy to analyze a subject and construct our thoughts and put them into words in childhood years. But it was always a failure in my experience. Sometimes i was able to describe my thoughts about a subject in 1 paragraph because i had a curious and thoughtful personality. But i usually wanted to ponder on it, brainstorm it and say more about it. In other words, what i couldn't describe back then was: I can barely write a paragraph about a subject that can be written in a whole book, how much there is that i can't know and explain. Also, our teacher used to say that writing a composition would gain us new skills but we didn't understand how it would happen.
Another example from those ages. The same teacher suggested me to read the Essays from Montaigne. This was probably because she realized my personality traits :) I really wanted to be able to read that book but it became floating and confusing sentences in my brain, because i couldn't grasp it like a story or a novel. So i couldn't finish that book and this was a failure to remember too. Being able to analyze a subject, researching it if necessary, synthesize my own thoughts and materialize them in a definitive form was always interesting to me because i have had an interest in philosophy. But i have reached enough maturity to write my own thoughts barely in university years.
When i was 19, i used to write small stories. I was writing my thoughts and beliefs in forum sites that where popularizing like crazy. I have written small articles about programming subjects after the university. Fast forward a couple of years to today. For 3-4 years, i have had an ongoing desire to have a blog that i can freely write and had subjects to be written about. I also had some drafts already written too. Then i have coded my blog and deployed it on the server and wrote my first blog post last year, when a friend unintentionally fueled me and the pandemic forced me to spend my vacation staying at my home.
The important part of the story starts here. People usually make practice speeches in front of a mirror before an interview or public appearance. You can see where is your weakness or what are your vulnerabilities this way. Similarly, writing a blog or any kind of composition, helps you to realize what you don't know about the subject. This means i understood what my teacher was trying to say with 20 years of delay :) I'm sure other bloggers or writers have mentioned this before me. But i'm also sure that all they have in common is taking their time to write.
Because we live in the internet age, we take it for granted and let us believe we can gather information about anything easily. But in reality, researching and composing are two very different abilities. They add you different capabilities and perspectives. Test yourself in front of a mirror one day. Try to speak about a concept in an up-to-date subject, or something you are familiar with, for around 5 minutes. If this sounds weird to you, try writing an article for 250 - 300 words. After that, if you have thoughts like "this sentence is out of place, i said this but was it actually correct, am i sure about this, i should add a couple of words here", well you are on the right track. At least according to my criterias :)
That means you are open to development and growing. That means your knowledge is presented to outside with some sort of methodology or format and your thoughts have grounds. This is what blogging would get you. I have also realized it is not for everyone. I wouldn't recommend starting a blog if you don't have an analytical or systematical mindset. Because i think you would get bored of it and abandon it soon. Of course this is my subjective thought and i could very well be wrong.
I don't want this to be a didactic post so i will briefly mention this. Obviously writing a blog to make your knowledge and experience permanent will be beneficial for the next generation. I have said this in my first post, knowledge only gains power and meaning if it is shared and acted on. From this perspective, a podcast or a video on youtube is surely another form of composition or blogging. If you don't like writing, you can try these options maybe.
Lastly there is one more question. What is your purpose of writing. It can be reasons like self-development, to teach others something, to write down your memories like a diary, to leave something behind you, investment for future opportunities... If you ask me, all of the above :) But it is important for you to determine your goals and reasons from the beginning for sustainability. Because you will have questions like "should i write about this, what should i write about, what is the point of writing this" at some point, since writing a personal blog is not a source of income. Your answers should be your goals that you have defined at the beginning.
So what happens next? I think you would probably figure out by now. The reason i have 5 categories on the left is to have a driving force by reminding me "there are things to learn and write about these". This changes your perspective of life. It makes you think "i can research about this subject and write about it, so that i can give other new perspectives". A blog writer does not write with concerns like "are people reading my blog or will they ever?". A blog writer focuses on whether their blog post will actually add something to the reader. I think this is a valuable goal. Keep on writing :)
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