Two years of blogging – part 2

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This is a follow-up to the post I made last week a couple of weeks ago, which was about my experience of blogging over the last two-years.

In this post, I hope to collect my thoughts on how I would like to improve going forward.

My overall aim is still as it was when I set out – to get better at writing. This goal is not as all-encompassing as I thought it was when I set-out. It is not specific enough, and I need to define my goals a little more precisely. 

I am interested in the technical details, such as whether or not word ‘x’ is a conjunctive, determiner or just a plain old adverb. These are things that I look-up, understand, and then forget what category a word qualifies for. I don’t think I will become a better writer for this. Still, I do believe that breaking the rules while understanding them provides more opportunities.

I would like to write less about me and what I do and more about my thoughts on life, and its intricacies. In doing so, I hope that I will spend more time on the writing and ultimately learning more from it – both the writing and the subject of the writing. 

I noticed that with my limited time, writing about my week had become the path of least resistance, as all it required was me to have a working memory. At the start of my PhD, this was okay as I was quite interested in my field. However, as most people do, I am now bored with it and have caught myself going through the motions, waiting for the day I can move onto something else. 

In terms of content, I intend to write about whatever I want to explore in more detail. I will only talk about my studies when I feel as if I have something interesting to talk about. I will be the arbiter of interesting. 

In short, I will:

  • Keep trying to understand the fundamentals.
  • Spend more time writing, which may reduce the frequency of posting.
  • Write about more varied subjects.

Where do I see the blog going, and do I have any goals for it?

I have no goals or expectations for this blog.

For a while, I have been thinking about moving to be self-hosted on WordPress.org. Not because I believe there are any specific benefits. I think the technical know-how that may be learnt will be valuable. 

I want to experiment with audio. In moments, I have caught myself reading someone’s piece and wondering what the voice of the person who wrote it sounds like. Did the voice in their head transfer to the page?

Do you have any thoughts or guesses as to what my voice sounds like?

Published by Louis

Spend less than you earn, Invest the surplus, avoid debt. Eat food, not too much, mostly plants

24 thoughts on “Two years of blogging – part 2”

  3. Great post! Here’s a few thoughts I want to share with you: First of all, try reading some books that you normally wouldn’t pick up! Sounds weird, but last year I read a few YA titles and some rather left-leaning lit, and I believe it really improved my overall skills as a writer. Second, moving to a self-hosted site to gain hands-on tech knowledge is 100% a good idea! Finally, I would wholeheartedly recommend you try recording yourself and sharing it with all of us! In my opinion, there’s nothing more authentic than authors who read their own works to us. Sorry this comment turned out a bit long. Good luck, and I’m excited to see where you go with this!

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  7. I agree with Priscilla about the British accent. I would guess it is a well educated voice (and based upon what you have written about yourself), perhaps not a posh accent. Can you emulate an American accent? (Not that you would need to or want to, just curious.)

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  8. Good morning from Texas US, Louis. Since I believe you are in the UK, I’m guessing your accent is different from mine. (I’m a native of Colorado, who moved here from Iowa twenty years ago. My accent may be one-of-a-kind.)

    There is nothing wrong with writing about your life, or what you did during the past week. It’s not cheating. First and foremost, writers should always “write what we know”. If you are not an authority concerning your own life, then there’s a problem. It all depends in how you write it. Are you taking a “dry” journalism approach? “Nothing but the facts, ma’am.” Or do you have a wee bit of the storyteller lurking deep inside? I’m naturally a storyteller, and I’m thinking I might have a few years on you. I’ve actually been writing for a long time, meaning I’ve had lots of practice. It comes more naturally to me now. It’s only been more recently that I dececided not to be so stingy with my work and share it with others. Post when you have time, and only if you’re excited about the subject. When it matters to you, it will show in your writing. (Including your science projects. I happen to like science, especially anything Space/Stars related. I’m a Science Channel junkie.)

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  9. Fifth paragraph down – you have said ‘it’s’. ‘It’s’ always means ‘it is’. The apostrophe there indicates that something is missed out in the word – in this case the ‘i’ from ‘it is’. You were talking about ‘life’ and ‘life’s intricacies’. If you were saying ‘Paul’s intricacies are difficult to understand’, then you have that apostrophe after ‘Paul’ because the intricacies belong to him. If it was a dog that had intricacies, you would put ‘the dog’s intricacies’, with the apostrophe after ‘dog’, but it doesn’t matter if ‘it’ is a dog, a cat or a weather system, even if the intricacies belong to ‘it’, once you use ‘it’ in a sentence in that way, you do not put the apostrophe after ‘it’ to indicate that the intricacies belong to ‘it’. This is the one occasion when you do not put the apostrophe there, because ‘it’s’ with an apostrophe has been reserved, by common consensus, for a shortened ‘it is’.

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  10. Agree with other posts – a sense of calm thoughtfulness.

    As for accent… Probably neutral, and I’m fascinated by families in which one sibling speaks with a parent’s distinctive accent, and another sounds – neutral.

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  11. Great post Louis- I’d definitely encourage the self hosting- always good to learn new skills! Have you thought about podcasting or vlogging as a way of going audio? Look forward to seeing/ hearing how you go- best of luck with it and KEEP WRITING!

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  12. I never really thought of the voices, the words are always what capture me… I love reading about others lives, thoughts, opinions, information and advice… their words draw me in…

    But now that you mention voices I am wondering lol – very interesting thought.

    You would have to write more for me to get a sense of what I imagine for you… the more you wrote the more I would imagine.

    When I read anyone’s words to myself – it’s usually void of all accents – just the words.

    Although … like radio… you hear a voice and you can paint a picture in your mind about that voice … sometimes if you see a actual photo to that voice, and it is not like what you imagined in your own mind. Does that change how you read, think or hear it? For good or bad? Or is it just your curiosity?

    Definitely interesting thought! 🤔

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  17. I agree, keep writing! I’ve been there before, both doing a Ph. D. and trying to improve my writing. My first story submission was absolute garbage, and last year I found the only possible use for it – trying to expose a predatory academic publisher (if you’re doing a Ph. D. you should know what that is). But I feel my skills in both research and writing are improving. I’m glad you like my blog, or at least one of the posts 🙂

    And yes, I eventually did manage to complete my Ph. D.

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