The novice blogger – a guest post

This is a guest post by Su Fowler-Johnson. I’ve been talking to Su about blogging and kept asking why she didn’t blog. This is the result of my gently nagging for a guest post. Perhaps there will be more, and just perhaps Su will start her own blog soon. You can find out more about her here:

The novice blogger – What’s the worst that can happen?

I write this with a degree of trepidation. Why would anyone be interested in what I think or have to say? This must be a common fear that I’m sure many a novice blogger faces. I’m not a prolific writer, I have spells where I read quite a lot, then stop. I watch about 4 hours of TV per week, fall asleep listening to Radio 4 and realise I fill the gap with talking. I’m aware that to think I need to talk my thoughts out loud to make sense of them.

I have spent what feels like a life-time attempting to pause (with various degrees of success) just enough so that whatever is ejected from my mouth has a degree of coherence. The fear of being perceived as ‘wittering on’ is strong.

I have been reminded recently that I do enjoy the process of writing. I have constrained myself by only using this skill when I write a report related to work. I realise that this association has become a block. So when encouraged to blog I experienced a number of false starts.

I want to write.
I want to write something of interest.
Of interest to whom?
What will I write about?
Who am I writing to?
What assumptions am I making?

To get started I thought I’d just ……get started. With this came the promise of something unlocking through the process. Setting myself the challenge of just ‘getting over myself’ and with the encouragement of friends and colleagues…. 10 minutes of coaching. This is it.

And when I review the words, I realise something interesting. This is written in the style of my voice, how I think and conduct dialogue. I miss the conversation with someone else’s contribution, and I also realise that this solitary pursuit will provide me with a new space to learn a bit more about myself and with one step at a time, with the knowledge that I’m the harshest judge of myself…. What’s the worst that can happen?