In what way(s) have you surprised yourself this semester on your blog? Have you tried topics you didn't think you'd write about? Approached a familiar topic from an unfamiliar angle? Discovered more "depth" to a topic than you first thought was possible? Explain.
I wouldn't say my writing has necessarily improved very much over this course of this year, but I'd say I have chosen to write about topics I wouldn't normally have thought of expanding my thoughts on. Some of these topics may have been assigned to me, but I still enjoyed writing about them in the long run. For example, never in a million years would I have considered putting my cousin Catherine's story on the internet for the whole world to see, but I did it anyways. Looking back on it now, I really don't know why I decided to blog about it, but now I'm glad I did because I feel like I have come to terms with it and her death would not be in vain.
Last semester, I said that I should write about things more unfamiliar to me because I was staying in my comfort zone way too much. I feel like I did that this semester, to some extent. In my blog about human nature and massacres, I talked about how it is in everyone's instincts to want to kill, and have power over others. Humans are, in fact, animals. In this post, I pushed myself to think outside the box and to write about the topic more in depth.
Other topics I wrote about are somewhat closer to home, but I still wrote about them more in depth than I normally would have. In our blog about love, writing about the rules of love really made me think about who got to make the rules that are 'socially acceptable'. Blogging more in depth about common topics really gives me a better sense of knowing what I'm writing about (if that makes any sense) so that I have a lot to say and a much lower probability of getting writer's block.
How do you like having a blog? How has blogging changed the way you write, the way you think, or the way you think about writing? * For the second semester only: Do you plan on continuing to publish writing on your blog this summer, next year, or beyond? If so, what are your writing goals and how will you use your blog in the future?
I really like having a blog. I think that once I started thinking of blogging as a way to express myself rather than homework or an assignment, I started to really enjoy it. I wasn't in this class when we all made our blogs and started the first few posts, but I feel like I understand the point of blogging. The fact that the blog posts are due weekly also pushes me to constantly be thinking about the aspects of my life that I want to write about. I mean, it's not like I am one of those people who constantly thinks about what they could write next and how they're going to write it, but I think blogging has helped me realize that writing doesn't always have to be a chore.
Blogging has also helped me outside of the classroom. When I come across something during the day that really speaks to me, whether it be a song, a picture, or simply just an outstanding memory, thinking of how I could blog about it can help me think more in depth about it. Plus, it feels good to be able to write about almost anything I want, allowing myself to express how I'm feeling that certain day or even that week.
But a lot of my blogs are sloppy and frankly, written in almost a childish way. Most of the time, I look at my blog posts as quickwrites. I just keep writing about my chosen topic until I feel like it is finished. This may not be the best method of blogging when it counts for a grade, but I think I will try to improve my organization during the second semester, as well as what I talked about in question #6 (above) about writing about topics outside of my normal comfort zone.
I will definitely try to keep my blog going for as long as I can just to express thoughts my on things. I won't necessarily have writing goals, but I would like it to be something I can express myself on whether it be through writing, music, pictures, or quotes. I also might transfer it onto a tumblr because it is much more popular with my age group nowadays, and I would be able to find more people with similar thoughts or ideas.
What have you learned from your struggles with writer's block? Why do you tend to get stuck? How do you tend to get unstuck? Notice any patterns?
I think I'd have to say I'm someone who constantly get's writer's block, but I don't know if I would call it writer's block as much as it is being distracted. Sometimes it really IS writer's block though. Last semester, I said that the best way to beat writer's block is to take breaks in between writing to find things that inspire you to write more, but I have found that these 'breaks' are SUPER time-consuming. You wind up getting a little bit TOO sidetracked and losing track of time. Before you know it, it could be 11:00pm and you have 3 sentences written because you decided to take a '10 minute facebook break' that turned into a '3 hour facebook break'.
This semester, I have found that the best way to beat writer's block AND to keep from getting distracted is to eliminate distractions by choosing topics that you feel passionately about. For example, my final blog post about my pet peeves was really easy to write because it was so easy to explain the things that irked me. You can see this trend throughout most of my posts this semester, like the one about my family members and my trip to Italy this spring break (which is still have yet to finish writing about).
Following up on the first question, I think that blogging and writing about topics that I am comfortable with makes it much easier to keep the flow of writing going. If you have a lot to say about a topic, it's easy just to let them all spill onto paper (or in this case, your blog). In doing this, writer's block could be completely eliminated if you're smart about your writing. I mean, distractions could still be there, but that's a matter of self-control and I have no remedies for that other than becoming mentally tougher for the sake of time and the quality of your writing.
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