When blogging was first introduced to me, it was something out of the ordinary. In English class, our writing usually followed specific objectives or prompts which was something that was always out of my interest. But blogging was entirely different. It was a place where we can free write about almost anything that came to mind. Over the course of a quarter, I learned to improve upon the struggles dealt with writer’s block, explore a variety of ideas I can use for my blog posts, and also explore how others felt about certain topics.
When I was first introduced to blogging, I noticed that writer’s block was becoming a constant problem throughout my blogs. When I begin to write, I usually start off by blurting everything on my mind about the topic. After that was over, I always notice that I was never near the number of words I am supposed to aim for (350 words at least). This is the moment in which writer’s block is at its strongest. To get unstuck, I usually searched for a solution that, in conclusion added more to the problem: redundancy. By using redundancy to get unstuck, I made my blogs look really repetitive and disinteresting. As I used redundancy more and more as a method to get unstuck, I started to notice a pattern in my work. My blogs were becoming more and more boring. That’s when I also noticed there was another problem and that was my preparation of my blogs. An example of my redundancy can be found in my opinion on what my responsibility as a student is:
“As a student, I think I carry out a lot of responsibilities. One important responsibility that stands out is how I complete and handle the work that is assigned to me from teachers, and eventually professors. As a student, I think that I am mainly responsible for completing all, not just some, of the work assigned to me as hard and as much as possible.”
In the second sentence, I state my opinion on what my responsibility as a student is. In the third sentence, I am doing the same thing, just in other words. This is an example of how writer’s block can contribute to the redundancy I see in my work. I’m focusing on one topic and repeating the same thing over and over again. But as weeks go by and I post more blogs, I start to eliminate this by switching to a whole new subject about the topic but not so different of a subject that it gets off topic. An example of my new solution is exemplified in my response to Leon’s post about books:
“Leon states that the number of books he has read without being forced to can be counted with two hands, you can count the number I have read with only one! And even those aren't necessarily voluntary by me!
When I look over why books are such a problem and distress for me, I kinda blame myself, not the books. I have not looked over the kinds of book that are of my interest.”
Instead of focusing simply on the subject of “How many books have I read?” writer’s block kicks in and I avoid it by moving on to a new subject. This is one of the methods I have learned over the course of the first quarter of blogging and has proven to be very helpful not just in my blogging assignments. It has also proven helpful and essays and other work beyond just blogging.
Going back to my first blogs, there wasn’t much topics of my interest that I could blog about. So instead of searching for something new to express my ideas and perspectives about, I went to my summer assignments and just typed them up and posted them as blog posts. But then I noticed I wasn’t really going anywhere in terms of improving my writing methods or in learning how to avoid the chance of writer’s block occurring. That’s when I started to browse around both the freshmen and also fellow sophomore blog posts and observed the variety of topics that were pouring in through Google Reader. Topics included sports, weather, music, books, and numerous others. That’s when I began to get the idea myself to start posting blogs about topics that I liked as well. The first thing that that came to mind was sports so I started blogging about how horrendous the Oakland Raiders were:
“So far...The Oakland Raiders have a record of two losses and one win (1-2). Am I angry? YES! The Raiders do not deserve that record! The last game they played, a loss of 23-24 to the Arizona Cardinals was horrible to watch for a Raiders fan.”
In this blog, I start to express my feelings about the Oakland Raiders and how disappointing they can be at times. This also shows one of my first assignments in which I start to express how I feel about certain topics, something we don’t do in English assignments. What we usually do in our English assignments is follow specific prompts and objectives that are never really in our interests. But this year, it all changed when blogger was introduced to us. We are able to talk about whatever comes to our mind and express it and also explore what other are expressing and how others see certain things from their view points that I might see entirely differently. It is also a good feeling when you find that others feel the same way about certain topics as you do. In my response post to Leon Liang, I relate to his feelings toward books and what effect they have:
“When i read this portion of the blog, i feel almost the same exact way! Books to me are really boring and they are barely read by me. In those rare occasions where I reading books, it is because i am in a situation in which i am forced to read it! Its either "read" or "get an F" situations that i am caught with a book in my hand. While Leon states that the number of books he has read without being forced to can be counted with two hands, you can count the number I have read with only one! And even those aren't necessarily voluntary by me!”
In this blog post, I relate to Leon and his difficult times with books. We share the same opinion towards books and how boring they can get. Like Leon’s blog post, there are numerous topics that are discussed by my classmates that I can relate a whole lot to and there are also some that I disagree entirely on as well. Either way, I am always learning new things about how people feel about certain topics in our society.
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