starting a blog is hard!

Starting a blog is hard. It’s daunting, really. To help get us started, my professor gave us some great readings. I thought these were very poignant and helpful…for the most part. They also scared the crud out of me. In the article “You Should Write First for Yourself,” Jeff Goins gives us what he says is a crucial truth to writing success, putting the audience second when writing – great advice, right? Maybe it was just me, but the first point he makes rubbed me the wrong way:

You create prose to challenge, compel, or convert. But you don’t write to entertain (If you do, feel free to skip this post).

If you are truly communicating — and not merely entertaining — you need to challenge people. Which means making them uncomfortable. Which means sometimes bucking the system and pushing the status quo.

Uhh pressure much? I feel like those are some intense parameters to put on blogging. I don’t write to challenge, compel or convert very often. Maybe I should, I don’t know. I just  want to write a blog that gets a few followers and makes them smile. Sure, I’d also like to write something that sparks ideas or creativity, that’s helpful or gets people talking – but if it’s not entertaining, who is going to read it? I feel like Goins is perpetuating a stereotype of pretentiousness that is sometimes placed on writers. Am I being too sensitive here – looking at things in the wrong way? I did find the rest of the article and comments useful. Writers, you can read his article here and please let me know what you thought. Why do you blog – to challenge the status quo, because you enjoy sharing with others, or something else?

PS – I actually feel like I might have challenged the status quo of Tour de Fat costumes this weekend during my short stint as bicycling bowling pin.

PPS – It occurs to me that might not be correct use of the term ‘status quo’ but I just wanted to brag about my amazing costume and couldn’t think of a way to tie it in. Shameless.