Practicing Writing

Obviously, I missed another day in my BEDA (Blog Every Day in April) challenge. Having missed a day, I started thinking about why I'm bothering to blog everyday this month. Some of my blog posts are as short as two sentences and a link, more of a Tumblr than a blog. Yesterday I told my friend Bethanie that Tumblrs are blogs for people who are to lazy or busy to write a whole post, but then was ashamed of myself for saying that because sometimes my blog posts are little more than a few lines.

So, back to why I have tried BEDA two years running - the goal of BEDA, in my opinion, is to increase the ease of putting your thoughts on paper in a coherent, readable manner. Essentially, the goal of BEDA is to improve my writing and blogging. So now the question is, does BEDA actually improve my blogging? I'm honestly not entirely sure. I can say that at the beginning of the month, I do really enjoy the challenge of having a thoughtful post, and I make more of an effort to observe the world so that I'll have something to write about, which I think improves my writer's eye, but not necessarily my grammar, sentence structure, etc.

My roommate, Katrina, drafts almost everything she writes. She'll draft emails and blog posts, save them, and come back to them later, with a fresh eye. I tend not to do that - usually what you read here is what I wrote, with minimal edits. I think Katrina is an incredibly talented writer, perhaps because of her tendency to draft and revise (for a sample, see her blog post here: http://aerophobickat.blogspot.com/2012/04/inspiration.html).

Both Katrina and I use our blogs to share whatever thoughts come into our heads - there isn't a specific theme or point, it's just a place for us to talk and record the thoughts that we've had. However, my friend Megan is using her blog to talk about her stay in Ireland. My friend Bethanie uses her blog to explore the Psalms of David. Themed blogs are pretty popular - the whole premise of the movie Julie and Julia is a themed blog that rose to fame. A few weeks ago, a journalist from the Baltimore Sun came to speak with the staff of the Retriever Weekly, and she mentioned that blogs are a great way to get people to read your writing, so that they will want to pick up your articles, so the paper will get read. So, I think, regardless of the blog theme, or the length of the post, BEDA and blogging in general is about one very specific thing - practicing our writing.