Hello
Yesterday signified my first full month of writing this daily blog, and I can’t believe it’s gone so fast.
I had three things I wanted to achieve when I originally had the idea of starting the blog. Firstly it was to improve the quality of my writing. Secondly, I wanted it to improve my observation skills and lastly, for it to just simply increase the amount I wrote each day.
And I would say that since starting on New Year’s Day, I can already feel the difference. I’m only 31 days in but I feel like I’ve alaready come such a long way in this first month, and I’m only just getting started.
In the early days, I was quite apologetic about the quality of the blog, writing that I was sorry about what I had written and that I’d endeavour to improve the next day. I was also quite whiny about the simple act of writing each day as well. I still feel apologetic some days, but I just keep that in now. You don’t need to read the fact I’m not sure if that joke worked or that my day really was that boring no matter how many exclamation points I put in!!!
My blogs in the first fortnight were punctuated with me either moaning about my ability to think of something good to write, about having a boring life where nothing happened, or struggling to find clever observations about everyday normality. Even I was starting to get annoyed at the ‘And finally, sorry…” bits at the end of each blog post, and I’m sure you were too. Thanks for sticking by me.
So what do I think I’ve learned so far? Well, whilst I still believe I don’t lead a very exciting existence, I’ve managed to write about something every day, so I must be doing something right. In fact, if I stop and think about that, I can’t believe that. I’ve written over 20,000 words in a month whereas before I was barely writing 20. I’m really proud of that.
Thinking about it now, going from writing nothing to 500+ words a day was probably a bit foolhardy, but I managed it so I guess throwing myself in at the deep end was exactly what I needed.
Writing this blog has also made me look at the world differently. I now find myself taking more in, thinking “oh that’ll go in the blog” and generally observing more, which is exactly what I wanted to do.
My lowest point was probably this post. In fairness I did have a boring Sunday, but the whole point about starting this blog was about me improving my observation skills through writing about everyday stuff, not listing what was on the telly last night.
I wanted my skills to improve by making observations about the normality of everyday life and finding humour in the mundane. If you wanted a list of what watched on TV last night, then you’ve got my Twitter feed for that.
That Lazy Sunday post was only my tenth blog, but a comment on my Facebook profile about the blog described the post as “Dull as dishwater”. Even between friends, that comment was enough to make me sit up and realise that I wasn’t doing what I had originally set out to do. Now each time I write my blog I think about Helen’s comment. I ask myself if this one is as dull as that post, and if this one is observing and not listing. Generally I think I’ve done that, bar maybe a couple of duff ones.
I’ve received some really complimentary comments about some of my posts too, especially the Tesco Quick Till one. Another even got published!. At the time though, I didn’t think it was that special; I was happy with it, sure, but I was a bit concerned about the length(!) but since then I can see that compared to some of my early stuff, I’ve come on leaps and bounds.
So I guess this is the part where I thank you. Thanks for sticking by me as I’m learning how to write, and thanks for staying around to see how I embarrass my closest loved-ones next. Thanks for reading and thanks for the nice, and even the not so nice comments. Even the bad ones spur me on and give me inspiration to do better next time, so thanks for that. I really appreciate it. Here’s hoping I’ve made even bigger improvements in a years time.
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If you haven’t had enough of me quite yet, I also appear on the SPOnGcast each fortnight. Visit SPOnG.com to download or iTunes to subscribe.
Big Brother may have finished but Episode 8 – the final Big Bother of the series – is now out. Just over 90 minutes of good old Big Brother chat with David Turners, Capone_Adam and myself. Download directly from the Big Bother site or subscribe on iTunes.
