The Ancient Art of Blogging

I am a murderer. I am a thief. I am the worst person you have ever met. There is a reason why just being in my presence makes the hackles on the back of your neck stand up.

But most of you will ignore the soft whisper in the back of your mind that tells you to get away from me. You ignore your intuition to your detriment and to my benefit. And that is how I like it.

You’ll wait a moment and try to reconcile your thoughts with the feeling you get when you look at my face. Big warm smile, eyes that twinkle and a deep voice that rumbles just a little bit.

I can’t be those horrible things. I have to be better, different. I am not a murderer. I am not evil. I am someone warm, special and interesting. You like spending time with me because I make you laugh and you feel safe, secure.

The Ancient Art of Blogging

These words you read here and this thing that I and so many others is doing isn’t new. There is nothing new about story telling or keeping a journal of our thoughts, ideas and feelings. Go back in time and you find nothing but oodles of examples of the ancient art of blogging.

Sometimes it is nothing more than drawings on the walls of caves and sometimes it is something more sophisticated like the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. What you do when you blog is form one more link in the chain of history.

I don’t know about you but I think that is really cool. It reminds me of conversations with the children about how telling stories helps keep our dead alive. Every time I tell someone about my grandfather his spirit rises from wherever it is and for a brief time it is like he is sitting in the chair next to me.

The Ancient of Blogging is just another way of saying that we are story tellers and I love that. A good story is magical. It transports you to another place and time. It is a tool we can use to create entire worlds, build a new reality/identity.

Sometimes when I push publish I wonder what people will think of my words. Will the tales I tell be relegated to the ranks of hack writers and amateurs who never managed to do much of anything with their words or will they be placed among the masters.

Questions, so many questions.

This is the second or third time that I have chosen to use that picture. There is a point and a purpose to it. That picture makes people feel and that is what I want my words to do. Some remember other times and places and others just smile.

It sets a tone and creates a mood.

I like it so I am using it again. I am a green blogger. I recycle my old posts. Sometimes I write a thousand word post and decide that I don’t like it so I refuse to publish it. I click delete and you can hear the screams of a million pixels that will never see the light of day.

This post about the ancient art of blogging feels a bit like Frankenstein’s monster to me. There was a different post. I wrote it well after midnight and then decided that it had no flow and no feeling so I killed it.

But instead of deleting and destroying I saved it and used some of the parts and pieces.

The Ancient Art of Blogging is the kind of headline that catches my eye and makes me want to know just a little bit more about what was written.

I read those words and I can’t help but wonder if maybe the author knows something that I don’t about blogging. Have they some nugget of wisdom to share with me that I haven’t heard before. Will it be the post that teaches me how to catch lightning in a bottle or something close to it.

Some people might suggest that it is self serving to praise my own headline and I would agree with them because it is. I would also point out that I routinely tell people that this blog is about dreams. Some of those dreams are fragile. They are like holding water in the palm of your hand where you don’t dare do more than hold still because if you move or hold on tighter all that water would slip between your fingers and be lost forever.

When I say that writing isn’t the hardest part of blogging it isn’t because I am trying to make you feel badly or engaging in link bait. It is because I believe it to be so. I believe that a blog is the perfect place to chase those dreams I mentioned and to try to suss out the truth of our hearts in ways that we might not otherwise do.

Just Write

The real point and purpose of this post is to be a part of Just Write. It is an exercise in free writing and an opportunity to not be caught up in convention. There doesn’t have to be a structure or outline to this.

It is just how I prime the pump and prepare myself to write more words. Right now I am writing more than I ever have. I am pushing harder to try to reach the next rung. I am talking to more people about my words, promoting my blogs and asking them to give me their time.

I’ll share more about this in a coming post. I am a man on a mission. Just Write is part of the process and something that I enjoy participating in every week. Thank you for reading.

• Saved: Blogging, Just Write