Blogging part 2: ‘Bad’ Posts

Hello. Me again.

I know, I’ve already blogged once today. Although, maybe you missed it. I published it, took it off, then published it again in the space of a few minutes which probably fooked my RSS feed up good and proper but oh well.

I had decided it was dull. Dull dull dull and wasn’t really about anything and was probably of no interest to anyone and I should just take it down.

And once I’d got over myself and my silly wobble I was pretty struck by the whole stupid thing.

Why on earth did I take it down? It wasn’t THAT bad, just a rambly kind of post that didn’t make much sense and probably left readers not really sure how to respond. But that’s ok, right? Why am I being so insecure?

And then lovely Mum’s The Boss said something on Twitter that made me do one of those head-smack “doh!” moments. She said maybe all this talk in the bloggosphere today about what makes a ‘good’ blog post had made me question myself.

I think she’s absolutely right.

It’s been the hot topic today. A Modern Mother wrote some tips about what she thinks make a top blogger and I liked her message that silly tantrums, cattiness and resentment won’t get you anywhere.

Then Notes from Lapland and Babyrambles almost simultaneously posted their take on writing good blog posts in a weird moment of blogging synchronity.

Now don’t get me wrong. It’s all good advice and well worth a read. We all want to be ‘better’ bloggers, engage our readers, write posts that stand out from the crowd. It’s good to stand back and analyze sometimes, work out what it is that made this post ‘work’, what made it successful or not so. It makes us better writers and helps us to grow and not become stuck in boring, predictable patterns.

But I think it can be counter-productive.

We’re not writing articles for magazines here. We’re writing personal blogs.

Sometimes it’s not about writing well, ticking all the boxes of a ‘good’ blog post.

Sometimes it’s just about writing.

Getting it out there.

So. I just wanted to throw it out there. I hereby give you permission to write bad blog posts. It won’t stop me reading your blog, or lessen my respect for you. It won’t make you any less of a ‘top’ blogger in my eyes.

It will just show that you are human. REAL. That you are fearless in claiming your blog as your own, which is what it is. That are you are not going to let self-doubt and perfectionism get in the way of creativity and self-expression.

Be boring.

Be rambly and mindless.

BE ANYTHING YOU WANT TO BE.

And try and remember that sometimes the ‘bad’ posts, the ‘mistakes’ we make, help to make us better writers too.

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