The year was 2012. I attended a blogging forum that promised to make me the ot cake of the blogging community with just a day's worth of advice. Upon implementation I would be the talk of the virtual online town (read Kenya's blogosphere). Or would I? Well, if there is actually one thing I remember from that entire day of learning various tips and hacks is myself asking a fellow attendee "Why do you blog?" It was a fundamental question that would explain our very presence at that forum. I cant remember what answer she gave but now I actually wish i asked the question to myself instead of her.
As you can see it has been months since my last post. It is not because I haven't had anything to say of course. Each time I went ahead and tried to say it I ask myself, Why? Why am I writing this and who am I writing it for. In fact years back the answer to that would have been simple. I will get loads of traffic and consequently load of money. If was there was ever an adolescent blogging principle it would be that. Blogging to get rich is the equivalent of living so that you can eat. there are a million ways to get rich and blogging is certainly not in the top ten most recommended. In fact for most successful bloggers it is a by product of their effort. So what is the real product. In fact better yet, what is the real motivation.
Let us put motivation into perspective. Years before the forum I mentioned above, I had started my very first blog. It was a blog on matters actuarial. I was an actuarial science student at that time approaching my graduation year. The very idea of being Kenya's first actuarial blog was exciting enough. Soon I discovered there were others and this got me even more excited. We were a community. A force. My blog has very few readers to be honest and of course after a while this bothered me. I wanted more. it is the inevitable trap of inborn human nature. MORE MORE MORE! But what I really needed was enough. Enough readers, enough comments and enough content. That is all a good novice blogger should aim for. Enough.
I had about five followers, two of whom read my every post no matter how cryptic the math formulae I discussed got. These were the guys who kept me going. When these people commented on a post, I totally forgot I had 5 pageviews a day. Soon I had 20 and I was doing the flips. 20 was enough. But just like every other novice blogger who never took his blog seriously, my interest in the subject fizzled out as the rise in my pageviews did not reflect on my college grades. I eventually got tired of all the intricacies of actuarial science and took a quick detour to the world of media. To me there was a whole world out there in media that I needed to immerse myself into.
After my first blog, I started a series of other blogs (I believe this one was my second). None of them inspired the zeal to write as much as my first one did (why does that sound like an ode to your first ex?) So today I realized that my first blog was my most successful blog. It had an average of 10 views a day by the time I abandoned it and most posts would not make sense to the average Ghafla! fan but to those that got it, I was much endeared.
So, on the matter of why? I realized you don't really need much of a why to create a post. You need a simple fire that ignites your will to start a blog. For Spyderhand, it was the need to explore my creative writing abilities. But then work got into the way. Work has a way of doing that.
Then today it hit me after reading Charles Bukowski's (he would have been an epic blogger) Wikipedia page. He had this memorable mantra that says 'Don't Try'. Yes, don't try to write, don't try to sing, don't try to paint, don't try to be creative. Just wait for that inspiring moment to come to you. And when it does, Swing at it! As I said in the beginning, I have had loads of ideas. I shelved them because I asked myself what effect it would bring and whether I could even keep it coming regularly. Now I realize I didn't need a reason. THE REASON WAS THE INSPIRATION. All the reason I needed for his creative blog of mine was to distribute my creativity end of story. With the little spurts here and there I was using to publish new posts, I realized I was only trying. But as an ancient alien who became famous for his reversed sentence structures once said - Do or do not, there is no try. #Thatisall.
