Meta-Blog Post

Looking back at the year I've had in blogging clearly shows my improvement. The way I used to go about blogging was to sit down and force myself to blog. This process should be avoided in any creative process, as forcing creativity writing leads to bland or weak results. Instead, I found it significantly easier to write creative blog posts when I was inspired by something. I have written numerous blog posts on New York Times articles I've read, music I've heard, and countless other forms of media that inspired me. I also found that rather than rushing myself to write blogs to meet deadlines, I could space them out and give myself time to write a blog post that I truly felt strongly about.

You can see this progression starting at my earliest blog posts, as two of my first five blog posts were about the NBA lockout in early September. At the beginning of my blog-writing career, I would stare at my computer screen desperately trying to come up with a topic. With basketball on my mind, I resorted to writing about it rather than being inspired by something and writing a truly meaningful post. As I became more experienced, my blogs began to take new forms. I started writing about things that truly made me dig deeper in to topics such as my take on controversial movies (50/50), the decline of good pop music (Music is Getting Worse All the Time), and one of my personal favorites, the connection between hockey enforcers and suicide (Hockey Enforcers).

You can also notice my progression when you look at the thoughtful comments I have received for my more interesting posts. It is very rewarding when I get a comment of approval from one of my classmates agreeing with me or providing new information connected to the topic. Whether the comment is high praise, or even constructive criticism, I am more than happy to get it.

One thing that I have not done enough of, that I plan to do in the future, is tying my posts to bigger American ideas or to our class. Making connections is a very important part of writing blogs, and they make it very interesting for the reader. I feel like in order to be a good writer in any medium, not just blogging, your writing needs to be applicable or connected to other familiar topics. I did this with my Hockey Enforcers post for example, when I drew a connection with the suicides of 3 NHL players and returning soldiers from the middle east and their struggles with PTSD. I have made a lot of improvement as a blog writer so far, but I can't wait to show myself I can improve even more.