Blogging As An Unpublished Writer: Am I A Sham?

I've been having some blurry thoughts about blogging in the last few weeks and months. I feel all conflicted about it, and perhaps unnecessarily so. But still, I have so many questions and vague ideas and I want to make sure I'm doing this right. Often I feel like an impostor.

I've decided a few things about blogging:

I love it. I do. Genuinely. I love that it forces me to write, and I love that I get to talk to all of you guys.

It feels obsolete. In some ways, it really does feel like blogging has gone the way of payphones. Maybe a few people still use them, but you gotta kind a look at them a little suspiciously, and wonder why. People post funny GIFS and videos all the time, but I don't know the last time someone on my Facebook or someone even IRL was talking about a blog post they'd read.

It still feels necessary. So, even though blogging isn't The Thing anymore, and even though its not going to sell books or make me wildly popular, I'm still very glad I have it, and am definitely not giving it up. To me blogging is sort of like a dictionary for any given writer. The dictionary itself isn't going to be the glitz and glam that gets the career going (probably not, anyway) but its important to just have it there, so people can come back to check it every once in a while.

The Chuck Wendig vs. Anne R. Allen philosophies. Chuck and Anne are two of my all-time favorite bloggers, but for completely different reasons. I actively look forward to Anne's weekly posts because they are by far the most informative of pretty much any blog out there. She goes in depth, and makes sure every topic and angle is well covered. Its a master class in being a writer. Chuck, on the other hand, posts irregularly and his content is widely varied. He posts his own photography, or flash fiction contests. His blog you can pop in whenevs, get some laughs, have a good time, and head out. In my ideal blogging world, I want to have both sides. I dunno if its possible, but I'd like to.

I don't like giving writing advice. Both Chuck and Anne give great advice, but I've noticed something: its less about how to write and more about how to be a writer. The business and lifestyle side of things. That makes sense to me, because I don't know if I like sort of anonymous writing advice. A person improves there writing by learning from people and mentors in real life, and especially by having other people read their actual writing.

So with all that in mind, I'm trying to figure out what I really want to do with this here blog. I want to do some exciting cool things with it. I know I couldn't be another Anne or Chuck. I'm not as funny as Chuck, and not nearly as smart and wise as Anne. So I'm trying to figure out me as a blogger, especially given that I haven't published yet. (Still working on that. I'll be working on that till the day I die).

So here's my question: What are your favorite blog topics? And who are your most regularly checked, consistently favorite bloggers?

I'll take all the ideas I can get :)

Write on!

Sarah Allen