Why I Still blog...

When I started out this blog, my initial thought was to learn how to write in English again. I keep telling my students to write, both in Norwegian and English, but I very seldom did so myself. At least not in English. It somehow felt stupid just to file the texts on my laptop, so posting them in a blog seemed like a good idea.

There are thousands and thousands of good blogs on the net, so I thought: I just keep them to myself, not telling anyone, and it will be “my” blog, which no one ever has to waste time or energy on reading.

I was quite surprised when I found out that on occasions random people from around the world stumble upon my blog and find time to read my scribble.

Time passed and I posted more texts, and now I kind of secretly enjoy the thought of people reading what I write. I have no idea what they/you think of it (basically because my postings are never commented upon, apart from a few emails I have received), but still. There is something, a feeling, about it which is very close to the one you feel when you get attention.

I have been thinking a lot about writing lately... mostly my thoughts are about how to make time, and then... later on... what a bummer it is I didn't. The thing is; I think I know by now why I like writing so much: It is like talking to myself, and I get all the right answers; I give pretty sensible answers to questions... when asked, I think. And in my mind I question many things, all the time. (I am very curious by nature. Mostly I am curious about people. Not gossip or talking about them: I like talking to people, listen to what they like to tell about themselves and get an insight in how they think.)

I like writing, it is therapy, as well as something I can evaluate and see progress or decrease in. Sometimes I am just very frustrated, because I see no progress at all. I find typos and strange choices in words… and my headlines are just pathetic at times.

On the other hand; what is writing well and what is progress?

Well…

To me, writing well means, to me, writing in a way which can fully express my thoughts, opinions and feelings on matters I myself need to figure out. A good text allows whoever reads my texts to relate, and perhaps find new arguments and insight in normal challenges I think we all face now and again. Maybe I at times expose myself as a person, but I THINK I have done that without compromising myself too much. After all: I am who I am.

I think anyone who writes, no matter what genre they write, will agree it is impossible to write without doing so, to some extent.

Progress? I am not sure I make any progress in writing English. I found out, at an early stage, that evaluating your my own texts is really hard. But I do notice that I don’t think about what I should have added as often as I did before. But I have no idea if my rambling-ons are understandable; if there is any sense at all to what I type and put “on paper”.

Or… I am not entirely honest here: I have been told my English is fairly ok, and to me that is a HUGE compliment: Makes me want to continue writing.

Maybe starting out writing in English was a stupid idea. It is not my first language so I am writing about my thoughts in a foreign tongue, but if nothing else I am learning new words by doing so.

My only worry is that I by a mistake should insult or offend somebody, but I don’t really think I have, not yet anyway.