I am not a blogger, I have tweeted once in my life, and I have only authored work related documents. No sir, my writing days ended with my school, where I probably left the world of ‘what if’ and beautiful day dreams behind.
However, as I move into a different stage in my career, the single piece of advice to me has been to start writing. At the least ‘tweet’, better if I blog, and best if I write a book!! People believe strongly that I will have something sensible each time to share. I see friends and colleagues blog extensively, and even release books they have authored. ‘Wow’ I think to myself.
Finally I have given in, and with great trepidation, started writing short blogs. It was fun, so I continued. Into my second public blog last week, reasonable number of ‘views’, some nice comments. Excited and encouraged, I went dancing around the house, thrilled with the fact that I haven’t lost my story-telling ability.
But within a few hours, I started worrying – who is the audience of my blog? What will interest them? How will I know if I am making sense? What should my next blog be?
Ashwin, my son, finally had enough of my babbling. ‘Are you writing because you enjoy it?’ ‘Yes Ashwin’ ‘Are you having fun?’ ‘ Definitely’ ‘Do you want to keep writing?’ ‘Without doubt’
‘Then JUST DO IT!! For yourself, for the joy it gives you, for the opportunity to express your ideas and musings, and for the creativity it spurs in you. HOW does it matter if people read it, like it, don’t like it? Write because you enjoy writing!’
Definitely stopped me short and got me thinking. Too often, I forget why I got into something. I usually only do what I enjoy doing, and believe in doing, I do things for the love of it. But once in a way, the intent is forgotten, the ego and the public image takes over, and I get caught in the ‘image’ and the desire for approval, a fear of looking stupid………
So folks, now I blog and write, and maybe soon will even author a book, not because anyone wants to read it, but because I WANT to write it!! Thank you Ashwin, and people now know whose neck to choke 🙂