This post has been a long time coming.
Too long.
Throughout my life, I have often considered starting a blog. I just never knew what would be in it. I usually told myself I was too young to have something to say, that my life was too boring, or that my writing was still developing.
Then I started to grow older, and I realized that no matter what age someone is, there is always something to say, we just may not know what that is yet. I certainly don’t, but I’m figuring it out.
I also realized that my writing will always be in development. There is no magical finish line for me to reach. Part of being a writer means constantly experimenting with new practices and projects every time we pick up a pen. Plus, if writing is never finished, then writers are never done growing. A blog, however, could help me with my growth, not in spite of the imperfections of what is published on here, but because of them.
Lastly, I understood that my life, at least from my perspective, will always be boring. But a blog doesn’t actually have to be about my life. It doesn’t need to be my diary published for the world. Who would want to read that, anyway? Definitely not me.
One of my very favorite writers, Zadie Smith, notes in her essay “Life Writing” that,
“the dishonesty of diary writing— this voice you put on for supposedly no one but yourself—I found that idea so depressing. I feel that life has too much artifice in it anyway without making a pretty pattern of your own most intimate thoughts.”
I’ve often felt this way about keeping a personal diary too, and I thought a personal blog would be exactly that come to life. So, if I wasn’t going to make my blog about my day to day, and if I don’t yet truly have a specific area of expertise since I am only in the process of building my life, what would it be about?
Another one of my favorite writers and creators, Austin Kleon, advocates for artists, especially young artists, sharing their process and their findings with others. Kleon says in his book Show Your Work that “The best way to get started on the path to sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn and make a commitment to learning it in front of others,” and that ‘you can’t find your voice is you don’t use it.” This book, as well as the rest of his trilogy, have been major influences in my life thus far, and helped motivate me to push forward with making this blog.
Previously, I have written professionally for various outlets in print and online, and I have written privately, for myself, in my own journal. I have also written film reviews, articles, screenplays, short stories, essays, poems, and unfortunately, eulogies. Now, I’d like to write something that is a completely different form of expression; something that helps me better understand my own process and passions, and allows me to share those with others.
This will be a site where I can express interests, share what I am learning, reading, watching, enjoying, creating, and maybe ignite some type of spark like so much of the media I consume on a weekly basis does for me. At the very least, it will give me an extra excuse to spend time studying things that enlighten me, and dive deep into worlds and subjects I love.
So hello dear reader, and thanks for joining.
Natalie
The Blog to Be 