Some Thoughts On… National Blog Posting Month

If you’ve been a regular visitor to this blog for the month of November, you know that I took part in NaBloPoMo — or National Blog Posting Month. I think this is the first time since I started this blog that I’ve done this, and while it’s not an official thing anymore (probably because most personal blogs have been abandoned for Facebook and other social media platforms), people like me and my wife J have participated for the entire month.

I think doing this is was good for personal reasons. I’ve been going through some frustration with my professional life (or maybe it’s a wannabe professional life), and blogging every day reminded me why I started this blog in the first place: because I like to write about pop culture, politics, and personal stuff. But then Facebook, Twitter, G+, Ello, and writing for other sites took up time I used to devote to blogging over the years.

Well, I deleted my Twitter, G+, and Ello accounts. I don’t’ really like Twitter, G+ is actually a superior platform to Facebook, but none of my friends use it, so what’s the point. And Ello? I tried to be active on it, but it just wasn’t all that interesting to me. I still have a Facebook and Instagram account, but I’ve been sporadic on posting on it. I’ve also quit Facebook a couple of times — only to be drawn back in. But this post isn’t about Facebook, it’s about what I’ve learned setting a goal of blogging every day — and sticking to it.

Last year, I had a goal of publishing in an academic journal, and after a lot of revisions with a publication, I did it. It felt really good since academia was my intended career and it became a goal to get something in print before I die. Mission accomplished! The second thing I want to do before I die (not that I’m on my deathbed or anywhere near it) is to publish some works of fiction. I started out in my young adult life wanting to be a fiction writer (mostly screenplays) and while I took a number of classes in college to learn the technical aspects of writing a screenplay and short stories, my life took a different course after getting disillusioned with my abilities to be a writer of fiction.  Well, now that the bar for getting fiction published is far and away easier than it was 20 years ago, it would be kind of silly to let an opportunity to realize a goal just kind of evaporate.

I know, self-publishing fiction is a foolish thing to do — especially now when no one wants to pay for creative art. Music is pretty much free these days. Books are so freely available in digital form that the value of them has decreased to the point where only the superstars make enough money to support themselves. I don’t have any expectations that I’ll make money from my work, but since it’s always been an ambition of mine, I figure I’ll do what I did with NaBloPoMo:  set a goal and try to meet it.

What does that mean for this blog? Well, I won’t be posting every day going forward. But I have set a goal of posting three to four times a week. That’s because blogging is good for keeping my writing chops up, and it’s an effective medium to write about topics not related to the fiction writing. Some writers used to write letters to friends as an outlet not related to their work. I view blogging in the same light — except for the fact that instead of addressing one person, I’m writing to as many people who are interested in reading what I post.

So thanks NaBloPoMo! It’s been a good experience to write for pleasure every day.