Blogging

I've had this blog for a while now.

At first, I thought it would be more than anything a literary blog, where I would publish short stories, or a science blog, where I would publish about either what I was working on or cool things in the field of evo-devo or just in plain biology (or biochemistry). I'm not cut out for that. As I've said millions of times before, writing takes effort and time. Writing about a specific subject also takes research, a lot of rereading and checking of facts and commitment to the story. Things I am happy to do, but only once every few weeks, not enough to keep a blog going. So this slowly turned into a blog where I write about my ideas, what goes on in my head, my plans, my dreams... Basically, it's like a drawing board now, I sit to write the blog and things come together in my head, become clear.

The blog has not done wonders for my writing. I can sort out a blog entry in around twenty minutes (I try not to, but sometimes it's just so easy to sit down and spew a few hundred words without giving much thought to it), and I don't really take much time into rereading or correcting. This is terrible for technique, but I admit it's a good exercise in clarity. I'm not going to claim I am a clear writer. I never have been: I have to make an effort to get my ideas across and to not get muddled up in the process. However, I think writing the blog has made me a bit better. It has also taught me that I don't always know what's bothering me about a certain topic until I start writing about it. I've learnt that I like talking about myself a lot more than I like, and that I care a lot more about some things than I thought I did.

In writing this blog I've also learnt to consider other people's writing a lot better. Since a lot of these posts are put together fast, on the spurt of the moment, when I've had an idea or read something that shocked me, I've learnt to detect when other people do the same, and when people have actually put a lot of work into a post. I think this is important when reading (and even more so when analyzing) a piece: in a hurry, someone might make a factual mistake, or a rash judgement, posts that have been thought through are usually more thoughtful, more insightful and more dangerous, in the sense that if the ideas have been thought about thoroughly they are usually strongly believed.

Last of all, I suspect one thing this blog has taught me is that I enjoy writing. I knew this, but I always thought it was all about fiction, I thought essays were rather dull, that comment pieces were OK, but ultimately pointless. Now I get it. I like writing for the sake of writing itself, yes, for the beauty of the written word (wow, that sounds very cheesy), but a lot of the time I like writing because I want to say what I think, and I want other people to know what I think. Yes, I write this blog for attention, yes I thrive on it (the attention, not the blog). I like being told that someone reads it, and more than that, I love being told that someone enjoys it (and especially, I like people who disagree with what I'm saying, they make my day). Yes, I write for me, and if no one read this blog, that wouldn't stop me from writing it, but let's admit it, I quite enjoy the attention.

So I guess this was a sort of "sum up", a check of what this blog has turned into in a few short months. To any readers I might have out there: thanks for reading. Please comment (if only to make me feel read).

H