June 10, 2017 by Kristen

What on Earth Should I Blog About?

This question has an identical twin with the very uncreative name, “What on Earth Should I Write About?” and neither of them make for very pleasant company.

For one thing, they come wandering into the house of your mind whenever they so feel like it and begin eating all of your mental food, leaving you hungry with anxiety. Then, to make matters worse, they begin whispering sweet nothings into your ear such as, “Blog about blogging, the job boards always loooove that! Come on, what does it matter that they only pay -0.02 cents a word?” or, another delicious phrase, “Write a short story about vampires. Vampires are hot right now (not literally, of course).”

These atrocious twins visit me far more often than I care to admit. They consume me, rearranging all of the furniture of my mind-house, insisting the blog post idea about creative freelance work does not belong by the door, but instead visitors should be greeted with an essay on the feminist mind. But no, one will insist, that’ll be too off putting to some so instead just toss this fluff piece about your ridiculous yet obviously adorable cat in front, or no, maybe you should greet them with a story about faeries or goblins because everyone loves a good story, although not everyone loves a goblin. Meanwhile, every single piece the twins rearrange, they’ll ruminate on whether or not it contains too many adverbs, those dreaded –lys, or if it’s just too tired and used.

It makes me want to take a nap.

But sooner or later, I manage to shoo them away with my friends (and the right questions), “What Do I Have to Say?” and “Who Do I Need to Say it To?”

These two are my #squadgoals.

They recognize me as a multifaceted being, as the woman who explored the limited landscape of one creative career path for so long, just to circle back to writing and burst forth with all of these words within me, lashing to get out. These two help me to remember that what I want to say matters, but they also remind me that writing, at its core, is about communication and connection. So while I may write the most heart-wrenching piece on my wandering years (as I’ve just now named the years where I circled off of the path to performance and onto the writer’s road), it’ll mean nothing if I put it in front of a bunch of people who did not do the same, and whose only response can be, “So?”

Even though these two questions are my road to reason, I still cannot answer them, at least not always. I am so very multifaceted, as most humans are. I have so much to say and so many people I wish to say it to, and whom I want to hear from in return. Some days, it’s hard to latch onto the words though.

So this blog then will serve as an exploration, the quest for my words and their audience. It may be a strange path, but I’m confident that with my friends, some fortitude, and a good weapon, I’ll have a pleasant enough journey.

And it wouldn’t hurt if those twins stopped coming around.