3) Why I blog

I started blogging in April 2005. I was involved in internet forums, lots of people were doing it so I jumped on the bandwagon and joined in. Twelve years later and this blog – in all its various iterations – has seen me through good times and bad times. Mainly bad times as it happens.

You see, the one thing I have always found about having a blog is the cathartic effects of writing. Sometimes the thoughts in my head need an outlet. They need to be allowed out for a walk. Sometimes they dance across the keyboard and words appear. Writing is therapy.

And it’s helped. It really has. When the thoughts in your head get too much for you to sort out, putting those thoughts down as words on a page or a screen is really helpful; even if those words don’t get published. They can sit in drafts for days or weeks or months. They can be written in private and then deleted. It’s entirely up to the writer.

When a young lady I know started to blog I had this to say to her:

“Your blog is exactly what you want it to be and you can post in it exactly as and when you choose with what you choose. The important thing to remember is that you’re doing this mostly for you. Write what the hell you want. Write stuff you don’t publish. Edit stuff that you do publish. There are no hard and fast rules.”

And that’s exactly it. There are no rules. It’s entirely up to the author what their blog is. For me, it’s a way for me to sort out the perpetual internal struggle to understand what’s going on in my own head. I write – predominantly – to understand me.

If you are a blogger, why do you write?