I blog for a number of reasons. I’ll explain some of them here. First of all, I blog to force myself to think about writing something that someone else would want to read. I have been writing a journal for five years now and I seldom write an entry that I would expect anyone but myself to want to read. My journal is for me, to explore my ideas, make notes to myself, and practice composing sentences on the fly. My blog, on the other hand, is different.
I blog to practice writing. If you want to become good at something you have to practice. You have to concentrate on doing it right. If you practice doing something wrong, you’ll just get good at doing it wrong. I want to hold myself to higher standards. I want to use good grammar, form logical arguments, and achieve a particular effect, depending on what kind of writing I am doing. The effect may be to inform my reader. It may be to amuse her. It may be to provoke thought. It may be to inspire sadness, or laughter, or any of a host of other emotions.
I blog to capture thoughts that I want to share and learn how to shape them into a form that is more than just a casual conversation. I do tend to write my blogs with a casual style though. That is the style with which I am most comfortable. It remains to be seen if that is a style that appeals to my readers.
And finally, I blog to exercise self discipline. I have made a public commitment to blog daily and I intend to live up to that commitment. I hope that there are people that read my blog and would notice if I missed a day but beyond that I am a stubborn person and if I say I’m going to do something, I intend that I’m going to do it.
There are other reasons that I blog, but these are the ones that I am able to articulate right now. I hope that this is enough to satisfy any curiosity that you had about why I’m writing these blogs.