HOBBY BLOGGER EXPLAINS: WHY BOTHER WRITING?

Hobby blogger here, busy counting vanity metrics.

Google analytics reports traffic from Seattle, not so much from Portland.

West Coast readers show up more than any other region in the country.

Call me a West Coast hobby blogger?

I’ll take it, but . . .

Hobby blogging is about preparation and execution, not a form to follow with frantic hopes to make money.

A hobby brings different motivations than getting paid. For instance:

A teenager answered an older man’s question of what he was doing, adding that he wasn’t very good at any of them.

The older man responded with:

“I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.”

Here was how Vonnegut said the quote changed him…

*Kurt Vonnegut is typing now*

“…I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could “Win” at them.”

In other words, he changed his attitude, his point of view, his self-pity habit.

It wasn’t many years later the teen participated in WWII, joining Ernest Hemingway, and J.D. Salinger on the same battle field, except he was captured and taken away.

Thank you, Battle of the Bulge.

Myth Of Talent? Hobby Blogger Gets It

You don’t have to be good at something to enjoy it?

Well, if you enjoy doing something, you’ve probably done it more than once?

At least that’s what I’m thinking when I see a family of ten or more.

The key for me is doing something better than I did last time. I like improvement.

Take the time I sat down with a bowl of pho and it somehow landed on a couch cushion.

I asked the cleaner what I could expect for $350, the most expensive soup I’ve ever not eaten.

His answer: “Improvement, you can expect improvement.”

Does a hobby blogger need to show improvement? It’s not like I’m going to get docked if I don’t.

For the sake of self-image, self-worth, and the argument to keep my writing space instead of turning it into a She-Shed, I need to improve.

But, what’s that mean?

I’ve reached people and touched their souls as a hobby blogger. I’m reminded of this every time I check my spam queue.

Based on that I’m a genius beyond compare, with the ability to save the world one spammer at a time.

So I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.

But it don’t mean nothing, to borrow another phrase.

Choose, Or Don’t Choose. The Key Is Choice

I choose to see the Big Picture, or at least as big as the picture is without adding extras.

I like the view from my precious writing desk, my monument to creativity, which was also my childhood bedroom furniture.

It’s a beautiful treasure, don’t you think?

Such a writing space is found in every writer’s abode, shack, and garret.

Light, chair, pad. Check, check, and check.

I look for writing places everywhere I go. I found one in the downtown Portland library.

Walked down the Champs-Elysees in Paris looking for a writing room. And spotted one.

Found a place in Montmartre. If it was good enough for Picasso, it’s good enough for a hobby blogger.

Do you know what else is good enough? Any place you can find to write what’s in your head.

2

The professional part part of hobby blogging, the part that turns people away, is structure.

Yes, structure, foundation, solid ground.

Go ahead and be as weird as you want.

Do literary experiments. What’s that? Don’t worry, it won’t explode.

But, most things start with a beginning and work toward an end with things happening in between.

Think of a movie:

First Act, the set up, how things are until they change.

Second Act, when things change and everyone has to learn to cope with change in new ways that go wrong.

Third Act, more goes wrong, but one thing goes right, and it saves the day.

THE END

You’ve seen the movie structure a hundred times, a thousand times. When it works you never notice.

3

Hobby blogger structure helps readers, if you have readers, if you even care about readers.

It helps them navigate from one thought to the next. Unless your goal is confusion, help them out.

Beginning, Middle, End.

Take this post for example.

It starts with a painful confession: I’m a hobby blogger, not a news breaker, thought leader, or cultural referee. Ouch, I demoted myself.

Next, I build on the degraded brand by quoting famous writers comfortable with failure, of course they are, and how a hobby can reach people in their time of need, your time of need, my time of need.

Who isn’t in a time of need?

Then I close with thoughts on organizing blog posts for a better experience.

1,2,3.

Not 3,1,2. Or 2,3,1. Way too experimental.

But if that’s your goal, give Finnegan’s Wake a look, open A Clockwork Orange.

Or follow me for more hobby blogger inspiration.

THE END, pt.2