Because I am at the beginning of my blogging journey, I frequently wonder if I’ll come up with topics to write about. I constantly doubt my experience. I am unpracticed in finding the story in the things I do and think and see.
That doesn’t make me special. Lots of people doubt themselves. It’s getting past the doubt that separates the successful bloggers from the rest.
I feel a lot like the woman in the photo I chose for this post. Like I’m searching far and wide to come up with something to talk about regularly. As if only what’s worth talking about exists some distance away.
A week ago I purchased a book called Writing to Persuade by Trish Hall. It caught my eye because I am woefully awful at sales rhetoric, and unfortunately, that’s something that comes up a lot at my work. Trish Hall is a brilliant writer, and the book is full of advice on life and work and writing, as well as persuasion and developing opinions.
When you look for the subjects that speak to you, that you feel compelled to write about, be sure to mine the world that created you
Trish Hall, Writing to Persuade
The world that created me is one that I often neglect. There is a lot that I’ve learned and experienced which shaped the way I interpret the world and express it to others.
If I were to take the time to really look at the world that created me, I bet I have enough material to write for the rest of my life. I think Ray Bradbury wrote that idea once.
Looking backwards always seemed like a waste. It makes more sense to me to look towards the future, to think about who I will be and what I will do.
This post was not an easy one for me to compose. It required a painfully honest look at myself and how I go about my work. I believe that writers all have something unique to say which comes from the way that only they can experience the world. If I’m going to write my own unique perspective, then I need to understand my perspective in its entirety – including how it came to be.