Recently, Roger Tyranny of the blog Tyrannodorkus wrote a pretty good post about how he got convinced to starting writing a blog of his own. This made me think of the reasons I write a blog myself. After some thinking I decided to write it down. Maybe someone might relate to it and start a blog of their own too. Maybe it might just be an interesting reading to someone else. Or maybe I will just be amusing myself. Any of these options work for me.
So why do I write a blog about video-games for no pay, no fame, no reward at all? Short answer to scratch an itch to write.
The longer answer is pretty much the same as the short answer but with my usual wall of text. :p
Since I was a little child I always loved reading stories. And like many who share that kind of love came also the desire to tell my own stories. In fact, when I was a teenager and had to decide what career to pursue I really wanted to become a professional writer. I gave up on that dream pretty quickly though in favor of trying to go with something with a more regular paycheck.
I still kept dreaming about possible stories though even to the point of writing down some notes when the need to tell a story was feeling particularly strong. But then things would start to enter into cringe worthy territory and I would abandon it. But that itch to write stills comes to me. It never went away, it never will. It is part of who I am.
But as I found the internet somewhere in the 90ies and all forms of communication that came with it I also found there were also other things I’d like to write about. Games being the foremost one about that. So I tried it a couple times without it feeling quite right to me, tried to give up for a while but I still kept having all these thoughts bouncing around in my skull trying to get out. Since dumping a huge wall of text in my friends inbox didn’t feel right I decided to try a blog again. It seemed like a good compromise. I got to write about what I felt like writing and if my friends were feeling like discussing (and reading huge walls of text) they knew where to find me. It worked pretty well. I got to scratch my itch for writing, my friends still haven’t put me in their list of “Annoying People To Avoid At All Costs” and I even found some other benefits to this whole blogging thing.
Blogging also made me make a few new friends who write some awesome stuff in their blogs (see my blogroll on the sidebar for some examples). People who exposed me to games and other points of view that I’d probably would never had come in contact with if I never started writing and get involved into events like the Newbie Blogger Initiative or ARPil. And these are just two events that I participated in (or tried to). There is a lot of other events going on in the blogosphere with different themes that can get you to find some real gems to read.
There is also the fact that I suffer from a mild case of Social Anxiety*. Blogging also helps me a bit, almost in a theurapeutical way, with this. It gives me a bit more confidence to speak up what I think and to try to organize my thoughts before I do instead of my usual “Speak first, think later. Much later”. I won’t say it will cure me of it (is there even such a thing?) but I feel it helps a bit.
Lastly, I also live in a situation that I believe is pretty common to a lot of people in that I don’t have people in real life that shares my interests in games. The closest to it is my brother who also likes games but we have vastly different interests so it is rare for both of us to like the same kind of games. With blogging though I don’t feel so alone or a freak when I talk about the games that interest me. It allows me to get into contact with other people who share the passion and I can do it in an environment that feels safe for me.
So those are my reasons for writing in a blog. If you identified yourself with any of these points I highly recommend giving blogging a try. It is pretty easy to start one nowadays with services like WordPress.com or Blogger. If you do give it a try I hope you find it to be a very rewarding experience. 🙂
For my fellow bloggers out there, why not make a post about your motivations for writing? Curious Rakunos want to know! 🙂
* If you want to have an idea of what is to have Social Anxiety I highly recommend the game The Average Everyday Adventures of Samantha Browne. It is free, it is short and it is fun!
I started reading this post and wondered: Hey, when did I write this? – I had to remind myself that this was written by somebody else. But it could have just been from me. 😀
Even up to that social anxiety part, though in a bit of a different way. I tend to “not speak at all” for fear of not having thought through everything properly and carefully. And I obviously have bookahnerk and his cousin who share my interest in games. But there are parts of my world where games is a thing you do not mention as people will just stare and blink and wonder if you’re crazy. :p
I guess there isn’t much difference in terms of motivation when it comes to writing blogs. 🙂
I wish I could think a bit more before speaking. It would certainly save me a lot of embarrassing situations and misunderstandings. Around here I don’t think anybody mind me speaking about games but if it is the only thing I can speak about (and it is pretty close to that) and the other person doesn’t care about it then it leads to very poor conversations to say the least.
You stole my idea! Haha, okay, not really, but I saw Roger’s post, too, and also was going to write an answer – haven’t found a spot in my posting schedule, though. I gotta run to the shops now, but I’m intrigued to read the other half of your post and comment when I come back (please scold and poke me if I haven’t reported in within a few days).
Yes, I do. When you are checking this comment you are thinking “What was Rakuno’s reply to my comment?”. You will also be thinking if you should answer to it and how.
Speaking seriously though, I do hope you write a post of your own as I am curious about it. I won’t promise to scold you though because that is such a thing I could never do unless it would be in jest. Or I was in a really terrible mood in which case I’d probably avoid any kind of social activity anyway. As for pokeing…. Even if you ask about it I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing it plus I’d likely forget about it before you did. So…. :p
I’m not sure social anxiety really goes away, but blogging has definitely helped me cope with it and open up to people, even feel comfortable when talking to others.
Lol, I know I wrote about it in my post, but I totally know where you’re coming from about your brother and yourself play games, but not really the same ones. I perk up when I meet someone and they mention they play games, but then list off a bunch that I’m not into. As for my brother, we’re twins so we have pretty darn similar tastes in games.
I may not be putting out posts as often as some of our fellow bloggers, but I don’t think I’ll stop any time soon. It’s kind of addicting, in a good way. 🙂
Great post, Rakuno.
I am always hoping Social Anxiety can go away somehow. If not then I guess I will just have to keep doing what I am doing which is to live with it and moving on.
That is how my teenage years were too. It was like everybody I knew liked games… except it was either fighting games (back when it was the hot genre) or FPSes (back when it was becoming the hot genre) neither which were my kind of thing. Also, interesting that you and your brother are twins.
Yeah, I can relate to that. I can go through long periods without making one post. But I don’t see myself stopping any time soon. If I do it will be a ragequit due to other factors.
Thank you! 🙂