by Laura Lofgreen
When I first started blogging, I found the honesty of the entire experience interesting. I’m not normally out spoken. I’m a good listener and like to hear how others feel yet here I was, day after day, writing about how I felt about things and how I see the world. I realize my perspective belongs to me, but the honesty sometimes was a bit much. I didn’t want to force myself or my ideas down people’s throats. Was there a way to be gracious in the blogging process? Would my readers know when I was being a bit sarcastic? Light-hearted? Emotional? In other words, would my readers read between the lines of what I was writing vs. what I was trying to say? Would they know who I was by what I wrote?
When I first started blogging, I found the honesty of the entire experience interesting. I’m not normally out spoken. I’m a good listener and like to hear how others feel yet here I was, day after day, writing about how I felt about things and how I see the world. I realize my perspective belongs to me, but the honesty sometimes was a bit much. I didn’t want to force myself or my ideas down people’s throats. Was there a way to be gracious in the blogging process? Would my readers know when I was being a bit sarcastic? Light-hearted? Emotional? In other words, would my readers read between the lines of what I was writing vs. what I was trying to say? Would they know who I was by what I wrote?
One day, I received a comment from someone who reads my blog My Dear Trash. She said “I love reading your blog. You’re one of the funniest people I know.”
Funny?
Me, really?
I knew I played around with ideas, joked about my own inadequacies, but a funny writer?
I had no idea.
I read through some of my previous blog posts and chuckled. I really was funny, I just didn’t realize it. Someone had to point it out to me which makes me somewhat dense, but that's an entirely different discussion.
Now, I see humor in my experiences I didn’t before and it makes writing so much more fun. When I get really serious, it’s easy to lighten up a bit. I also search out humor more in everyday experiences, hoping to write about it later. When my kids do something funny, like leave the ketchup on top of the fire place mantel or accidentally get the broom struck in the top of the tree (I have know idea how that happened), I take a picture because I know I can later post it to something I’m writing about on my blog.
When things make me laugh out loud, I write them down for later use. Like when I ran into my husband in the laundry room and we hadn’t see each other all day and I said “Come here often?” Now that was funny.
I’m glad someone pointed out to me a part of my writing style I hadn’t seen before. Has your writing improved/ changed because of feedback you’ve received?
My writing changed for the better...and sometimes not for the better because of feedback I've received. Most of the time, it's better. I've discovered, however, that sometimes I try to hard to please others and leave my own voice behind. I have to decide what's good, what's bad, and what's just different.
ReplyDeletethanks for the great post!
hugs~
Sometimes seeing ourselves through others esp strangers helps "see" ourselves better. Don't ask me why that's true, it just is.
ReplyDelete