Satisfaction in the Blogosphere

By: Rebecca A. Schriner, Graduate December 2016

I’ll admit it: I was nervous when the big assignment for my Author Platform class was creating a blog. While I’d been in the PWR major for three years, my specialty had always been editing. Not writing. I’d tried a writing blog once. Little stories that came to my mind. No one seemed interested.

But, for the grade, I had to do it.

I figured I’d probably delete my blog after the class.

I scrounged around for a topic – called a friend, called my mom, called my sister – but it wasn’t until my roommate started talking about how lost she would be as an “adult” that I got my idea. I’d spent a summer on my own and would be graduating a semester before my friends. Maybe I could share my “adulting” stories online and teach teens and twenty-somethings about how to be real-world adults.

I thought, “If I could just impact one life with this blog, then it would be worth creating.”

Thus, Extraordinary Young Women was born.

I sat down that night and brainstormed Post topics. Perhaps it was too easy. I knew that night that I would fall in love with blogging and not be able to quit. I hit 183 ideas before I stopped consciously thinking about it….

But the ideas didn’t stop there. I still have 200+ ideas in my “Brain Bin” with new ideas surfacing every day.

When I started writing, I quickly noticed blogging wasn’t like other writing styles. Posts were 300 to 500 words, plus media. They didn’t take hours to perfect. My posts became advice letters to my readers. I could be open and honest and be my quirky self. I could be a friend.

And friendship is what I got.

My first week I had 36 visitors – 36 people whom I could impact. Soon, people started engaging. Now, I have a fellow blogger, friend, and graduate who comments weekly on my posts. We’re doing a blog swap next week, and I’m super excited.

Writing a blog boosted my confidence as a writer. I’m not afraid to take on new assignments because I know I can write on a consistent deadline. Blogging helped me find my voice and discover more about my identity. My friend constantly says she loves my blog because it’s like I’m sitting there talking with her. Finally, my blog has kept me writing and doing what I love after college. It’s easy to slack off and say you write enough at work, or say you’ll get around to writing “someday.” I get to share a piece of myself weekly, and it is the most rewarding experience.

Writers (and non-writers too!), if you are debating about starting a blog, stop procrastinating and just do it. Don’t worry about Followers or Stats. Instead, care about your message and what you can share with the world.