I’ve been thinking a lot about how at the minute I write mostly about myself. Dolly Alderton mentioned that she has finally decided to stop writing about herself and her life in the podcast I was listening to yesterday (Ctrl Alt Delete by Emma Gannon – would highly recommend). Then a few hours later a friend asked what I have been writing about for this challenge (my answer was “well, myself”) and it made me realise that this could all be seen as rather narcissistic.
But I don’t think I am actually a narcissist. I think it’s just the nature of the challenge. The pressure of having to write an individual “piece” everyday means that in a funny way, I’ve been a bit lazy. In the past, I have written articles and blog posts on all sorts, Victorian slums, Birmingham’s architecture, student life. But these take much longer as research and photo taking is involved… it wouldn’t be possible for me to produce a piece of writing like this daily (unless I was devoting all my time to it). Consequently, this challenge has so far been made up of quick journal style posts.
Writing about myself is something I enjoy and feel confident doing. I was always told to write about what you know (this was meant in relation to coming up with a fictional plot and characters, but I feel like it still applies here), and nobody knows me better than me. I’m not worried about making a factual mistake when it’s about me. However, I do sometimes wonder… is this interesting to anyone else? Does anyone care about my trip to a National Trust property or my addiction to vlogs? Entertaining others isn’t the main goal of this challenge, but I have to admit, it’s nice to think that others enjoy reading my stuff!
As much as I enjoy writing about me myself and I, I am excited to write some meaty and topical articles when the challenged is over. I’m a very curious person who likes to know everything about the things I’m interested in and how things work or have come about, so researching for articles is something I enjoy. And as this is my own personal blog, I have to luxury to be able to write about whatever I want and really expand on the subjects that interest me most. Even though these can sometimes be a bit niche, it’s possible that this will be more interesting (and will seem less self-indulgent?!) to others compared to ramblings about my life. Especially for people who don’t know me personally. (Although, having said that, I enjoy reading about people who I don’t know – I spend hours watching vlogs about the everyday lives of strangers! So who knows.)
I’m not really sure how to end this post. I like to do a kind of round-up-causal-conclusion-type-thing… but basically, I’m feeling inspired to write more articles, and that’s exciting. (Also, I’ve been talking about myself again throughout this whole post… oh the irony.)
Ruby Newby 