HOBBY BLOGGER WRITES THE RULES

A hobby blogger has rules?

Who makes these rules?

Unless you just got here on the writing bus, the rules are well established.

Go ahead and add what’s missing, but not too much.

Rule #1

Try not to be boring.

 

You know boring? That’s when you don’t turn the page, when you scroll past, when you can’t take it anymore.

Even a hobby blogger needs to know this about their readers.

What is the solution to boring?

For some it’s being outrageous, out of control, all over the place.

It’s throwing stuff on the wall to see what sticks.

Problems occur when the blogger throwing stuff gets it all over themselves and starts looking for blame.

It’s this, it’s that, it’s everything but them.

For them it’s descending into self pity, feigned betrayal, and feeling disrespected.

What should they do instead?

Instead of reinventing yourself as a newly minted jackass, shit stirring renegade, why not lean on the craft of writing?

Learn the three acts of beginning, middle, and end.

It goes like this: Normal life, intrusion, new normal.

 

Breaking It Down

Even for a hobby blogger things get messy.

Plan ahead if you want to wade into that swamp.

You’ve got something to say, no one seems to notice, so you go off on tangents.

In one desperate attempt after another to gain traction, traffic, attention, you get trapped.

You get trapped into a political stew, trapped in a lifestyle puzzle, a financial whirlwind, and you can’t get out.

The more attention you draw the bigger the imposter syndrome you feel.

Eventually you settle into the dull, day to day repetition of online outrage and personal repulsion.

The personalities that annoy you become role models.

Instead of friends and family and neighbors, you focus on an image portrayed by guys who do, or don’t, get up at 4 a.m., take a cold shower, hang upside down on an inversion table, and rake in influencer money to the tune of $10K a month.

Eventually you lose your identity, friends reject you, neighbors turn a blind eye.

What’s left? You and the illusion of who you are vs who you want to be, and the fight gets ugly.

 

Hobby Blogger Remedy

Be true to yourself, which is another way of saying not full of crap.

Instead, be authentic, be honest, and get as close to the truth about what you’re doing, and why.

Embrace your hobbies as real things that make you happy.

 

 

Ask yourself questions and give answers that aren’t repeats of talking points you heard on TV.

Develop opinions that aren’t related to your twitter scroll.

Be different, but not too different.

If you have something to say about race and religion, make it useful, not degrading.

This is the boomerpdx way.

It’s useful, helpful, and won’t make you a more of a nutcase than you remember being.

Read good books, cook good food, and show the sort of kindness you’ve been shown.

If you can’t do any of that, you might not make the cut as a hobby blogger and you’d lose a potential fan.

Do it the right way and you can over do things as much as you please without a guilty conscience.

Are you feeling it?