Why do we blog?

To release emotions, teach others, learn something ourselves, hone our craft, to consolidate ideas?

Whatever the reason, we blog to put a piece of ourselves out there, sometimes vulnerable, sometimes unfiltered, sometimes irrational.

When I started my blogging journey back in 2011, the main reason I decided to put words to a screen was my love for fashion. I am an avid fan of menswear, and this prompted my creation of a blog called DatsMaStyle.

I grew DatsMaStyle (website no longer active) from a WordPress.com blog to a WordPress.org hosted website in two years, gaining a loyal following, attracting great contributors, brand sponsorships and building awesome relationships.

However, this would not last for long, as I started my restaurant business around the same time, and needless to say, the blog took a backseat.

Writing hundreds of articles over the past few years has taught me one thing however. If I don’t have anything meaningful to say, don’t say anything at all.

When I started this craft six years ago the blogosphere was huge, but not as huge as today.

The endless noise and chatter about everything has tripled, from Trump’s style of politics to whether chocolate milk comes from brown cows (how stupid is that one lol) and if a dress is blue or white. 

Plus, with all that excessive and incessant muttering being put out by multi-million dollar websites, the average person also have issues they want to talk about. Our trips to Thailand, stress at work, the ills of dating, the joys of parenting, and the struggles of starting a business.

All of this adds up to information overload and leaves little room for senseless garb that fills our lives with even more stupidity and dullness.

Hence, this is why I do not write unless I am inspired.

I have to be inspired by something. A thought, an article or book I read, a trip I took, a business I am starting, something I failed at, life lessons I have learnt or reasons I don’t support something.

When I write, even if I cannot put the words together coherently, in some way it has to mean something. It has to touch a chord, make someone’s day or life better, put something into perspective.

The noise around us daily is mostly empty and rarely filled with valuable info that enriches our lives. As bloggers we face the ultimate task of providing our readers with substantial content that in some way gives an authentic piece of ourselves, whether through thought or sacrifice.

In the blogging world, we are constantly told we need to blog consistently to keep our followers engaged or we will lose them.

The thought of this can be scary, after all, you worked endless hours to push out content and grow your reader base to whatever number it is today.

But for me, taking such a risk is something I rather do than put out mediocre content on a regular basis, feeding my audience with apparent bullshit.

Sometimes that means going weeks and even months without writing.

It’s about taking responsibility

For what we put into the world, for the type of legacy we are creating and for the type of blogs or businesses we want to build.

The bloggers who can push out consistent valuable content, I honor you, but for me, if I am not inspired, I just can’t write.

Thanks to Mandy at the Broke Girl’s Guide to Better Living for inspiring me to write this one :).

Do you have to be inspired to write?

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One Love,

Dave Anthony

 

 

 

 

Posted by:Dave Anthony

I am a Jamaican born Entrepreneur living in the United States. Adventurous, writer, weird, down to earth. Here I write about interesting stuff that educates, thrills and influences.

11 replies on “Dear Bloggers: Do Not Write Unless You Are Inspired”

  1. I 100%agree with you. I am not and will never be the blogger writing about the daily/weekly goings on of my life, I’ll never write idle drivel just to churn out a “fresh ” post and I’ll never write about something just because it happens to be being discussed. At length. Everywhere. Ad nauseum.
    I have always written, since as far back as I can recall and I know myself- when I get inspired, a low , persistent clenching begins in my stomach and the adrenaline doesn’t stop flowing until the idea has fully formed in my head after being sparked by anything that happens to have triggered it, and continues until I’ve typed/ written the last full stop. Then I press publish (in the context of WordPress, obviously!) And I trust my instincts and know when something is good and worthy of being read. And I’ll always be like that, writing only when my instinct/soul/spirit tells me to.
    So, Thank you for this post; there’s far too much idle chit chat out there, misplaced and innane verbosity disguising itself as prolific and profound writing. I’m a lot more discerning about what I read lately and I have a vision of what I want my little blog to turn into and I can proudly say that it’s slowly but surely becoming what I truly want. A place where I can satisfy my visceral need to write, express and impart the true and open minded contents of my precious mind and follow my inspirations in whichever direction they deem necessary to take me,never conforming to a “type of blog” – just being what it organically decides to be. My inner world poured outwards.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate your in-depth response. You hit a lot of great points I was trying to convey in the article. Writing for me is something that requires a ton of passion, focus and inspiration. My writing isn’t always the best, but when I do write, it is due to a bout of creativity. When you are inspired, everything just flows, but when it is forced, you definitely feel the difference. You get stuck, tired and bored. There is just far too much unnecessary verbosity on the web as you pointed out, and if us as bloggers can take more responsibility for what we put out and only make a contribution when we have a valuable message, then that would help a lot. Information overload is making us dumber and more confused. We don’t know what to believe and how to decipher fact from fiction, especially in this new age of “fake news.”

      Keep writing and putting well though out, inspired content into the world. You will be rewarded ten fold as there are still people out there who appreciate quality over quantity. One Love!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Yes, absolutely. I constantly am faced with what I perceive to be the general population becoming thicker as we say in the UK.
        Thank you for your feedback. I do like to write in depth responses when I deem a post worthy of one; if the writer took the precious time to write a good post, the least he/she deserves is a thoughtful response. All the best 😊

        Liked by 1 person

  2. My posts are short and totally unprofessional, but thankfully I blog for the intrinsic value and read for the same. No sponsors, no ties, nothing clever or important…
    You might find nothing worthy of a “Woohoo!” and yet?

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Thank you so much for the shout out 🙂 I don’t think you have anything to worry about – I know I at least enjoy your posts so much that you’re one of the few pages I actively seek out to look for updates if I haven’t noticed any for a while!
    I had forgotten all about the blue/white dress nightmare that plagued the internet for that while. I couldn’t even bring myself to open the link about chocolate milk and brown cows. There are so many informative and entertaining and inspiring things out there, and how is the ‘civilized’ world choosing to spend their time? I was reading something not long ago, regarding how we would explain the internet to past civilizations or to alien beings, which has stuck with me, though because I can no longer find the source I’m sure I’ll botch it terribly: “We have this device that allows us to log on and access, within seconds, all of the information and knowledge that exists in the world, and we use it to poke each other and watch videos of dancing cats.” We live in a filler culture…. literally creating, seeking out and embracing any clutter to keep our rapidly deteriorating attention spans occupied. ‘Idiocracy’ comes to mind.
    Keep being you. It’s a breath of fresh air!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. You’re welcome. Your comment the other day and our ensuing convo led me to this topic, and I had to share. You hit the nail on the head with that quote. There is so much that the web opens us up to, yet we never realize its true potential as we seek out frivolity and fleeting feelings of excitement and euphoria instead. We have one of the most, if not the most powerful tool in today’s world at the stretch of a hand, and how we utilize it now will determine our role in a very digital, cloud based and web based future. Thanks and One Love!

      Liked by 1 person

  4. Your advice is contrary to the popular belief, yet so very true. Insipid posts don’t really make a mark in the reader’s mind.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks for your feedback. Indeed, it all comes down to what you stand for at the end of the day however. Some people are for mediocrity, hence, their work reflects that. To each his own, but it would help if bloggers started caring more about what they put out in the world. One Love.

      Liked by 1 person

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