blogging daily for a year

Since January 3rd 2010, i’ve published a post daily on smemon.com. It’s now January 2nd 2011 which makes this post number 365 and means i’ve gone a full year blogging daily…

If you can write, you can blog

Blogging is as easy as you want to make it. If you can write, you can blog, that’s what i think. It’s not so easy to keep doing it day after day over a long period of time, but that’s something i’ve mastered. Since i started back at college in September, it has been more difficult for me to blog.

It takes me longer to come up with stuff to write about and the more i think about what i to write about, the more i can’t think about what to write about. I can’t really pin point why that is but i suspect it’s because there’s other stuff running around in my mind. Assignments, dissertations, exams…

photo credit: QuinnDombrowski

That stuff requires a very different style of writing and getting your point across with sarcasm or images just doesn’t cut it. I do try to write in my own style and put together presentations in my own style but college work is results based and as a result, i will always approach any kind of written work with great caution. That caution kills flow which kills my own enjoyment.

With blogging, nothing has to make sense and you don’t get punished for anything which makes it more enjoyable and encourages more creativity which is exactly what i’m consciously trying to do… get more creative. Get as creative as i possibly can.

Designs

Since March i’ve also been opening up photoshop daily and designing something. All of those designs introduce every single post here on smemon.com. They could be cropped photos, photos using filters & actions, a combination of shapes, brushes, text, 3D stuff… anything really.

photo credit: 28 misguided souls

At this stage i know my way around photoshop and most of it’s features which is really all i had hoped for. It’s something i’m still trying to learn more about. And that’s a great example of no strings attached creativity. There’s nobody grading me, nobody asking me to create anything… so i enjoy it more and the end result is what you’ve seen on this blog for the last 9 months or so non stop. Rubbish, mediocracy and sometimes surprisingly good work. Without the first two, you can’t arrive at the latter.

The future of blogging

The future of blogging lies in vlogging (video blogging), there’s no doubt about it. Think of it as books -v- movies. More people watch the movie because it’s just more interesting and entertaining. You don’t have to read words and form images in your own mind, you can just sit back and absorb it all.

People love watching people or stalking them… look at facebook, look at youtube, look at twitter… the vast majority of time spent on all of those sites is time spent listening and watching as opposed to creating.

photo credit: Serge De Gracia

Watching video of someone talking is more interesting than reading what that person is talking about in text format. It’s more personal, more natural. We’re now also at a stage where we have HD and we have broadband. It’s getting easier to produce and consume video online. That’s not to say blogging is dead, in fact it packs much more punch in my opinion if you want to have serious conversation online.

Here’s to the next 365

For now though, i’m happy blogging, i’m happy creating something on a daily basis – i think it’s a very healthy habit to get in to regardless of the quality of the stuff being created. Blogging daily, without fail for a year is perhaps a little extreme, but i never like breaking habits or losing discipline. In 2011, i’ll be away for a few days in Barcelona this month but i’ve yet to decide whether my run shall end then or not. For the past year, i’ve scheduled posts to appear if i knew i couldn’t publish them ‘live’ every day.

Even more challenging than that will be a 7 day trip to Bosnia in May. Another 365 days of blogging looks unlikely but as i’ve already shown, it’s doable.