This blog is 5 years old this month!
I do this thing where I start a lot of things and don’t always finish them. I’m thankful and humbled by God that I’m still writing in this little corner of the Internet that He gave me. I haven’t always been consistent, but I’ve learned a lot. Here are 5 of those things I learned about blogging and writing in the last 5 years.
Write for God
It may sound like a cliche Christian thing to say, but not more than the “write for yourself” advice. I know, a lot of blogging and writing advice say that you should write for a very specific audience, but at the heart of all those advice is to write for yourself or write about what you’re passionate about because if you don’t, it’s not worth it. You’d burn out. The readers could tell you’re heart’s not in it.
I’ve been swayed by posting schedules, templates, and “advice.” I’ve felt guilty, confused, and lost. I’ve learned to go back to why I started this blog, which I forget so I wrote it in the About page. I wanted to honor God with my writing. Not just with the blog posts, but with the children’s stories I write. I wanted them to have a purpose bigger than entertainment.
Now that I think about, I guess I actually do follow the writing advice of writing for a very specific audience. That audience just happens to be an audience of one, my heavenly Father.
Don’t Chase Fame
I believe it was Emily P. Freeman that said or wrote that our souls aren’t created for fame. I hold onto that all the time. It goes hand in hand with writing for God. I don’t want to be chased down by paparazzi or lose a decent amount of privacy, but I do want an influential platform.
I have a voice and I have stories that are from God. Please don’t read that with the voice of a self-proclaimed prophet. That’s not me. No. What I mean is that without God, I have nothing. No inspiration. No imagination. No creativity to create. No stories. No voice. All I am is from Him, and I know my humanity enough to recognize when I work through my own strength and when He works through me. And it’s intensely exciting when He works through me. That influential platform – two-edged as it may be because it feeds my ego and makes me work harder to deny myself – is a way to spread the excitement.
That said, God didn’t create us for fame. We’re not created to be known, but to make Him known. So I repeat to myself that my soul wasn’t created for fame, and it’s okay if the only one who reads what I write is God.
Be A Learner and a Reader
They go hand in hand. Although you don’t necessarily have to read to learn (thanks to video and audio), learning something does the same thing as when you read something. You look beyond yourself. You’re informed. Your knowledge expands. Your perspective and worldview are affected. All of that affects your writing. There’s a popular varied writing advice that basically says this. Writers are readers. You can’t be a writer if you don’t read. Likewise, writers are learners. You can’t be a writer if you don’t learn. Five years into this blogging thing and I don’t feel like I have a handle on it. I don’t think I ever will because things are always changing, especially technology. Never stop learning. Never stop reading.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Ideas, outlines, anecdotes. I try to write them all down in different places. On paper, my wall calendar, my blog editorial calendar, in an app, n the notebook in my purse. If I don’t, I lose them or forget them. Out of sight, out of mind. It’s true when it comes to blogging and writing. When inspiration strikes, write it down somewhere you can see it until you do something about it.
Give Yourself Grace
We can be our own harshest critic. Grace is the answer to that. When I go through seasons, pulled in one direction or another, and I haven’t written a blog post or made a dent in a story, it’s easy for me to beat myself up. To feel like I can’t really do this and I should just give up. God gives us grace. God is grace. In writing and blogging, I quickly learned how important it is to give myself grace. To step back and acknowledge the season I’m in and what that allows me to do and not to. To rearrange my priorities and be okay with not being able to do everything all at once (because I can’t). Remember, grace.
For my blog’s 5th year anniversary, I’m giving away “Holy Hustle” by Crystal Stine. It’s a great book, but it also feels appropriate. I’ve hustled for this blog and I’ve rested from this blog. Whatever it is you’re trying to find a work and rest balance for in your life, I hope this book will help you. Enter to win and thanks for stopping by!
