Sunday, October 13, 2013

Day 13: Write what you know (or what you pretend to know)

Today, I laughed at: "Friends."
At work, we have to get the lottery numbers and they're usually aired on the channel with the news. But when sports games are on, they're aired on the channel that airs "Friends" reruns.
And those are some of my favorite nights!
The show never gets old for me. I watch the entire series once a year. I even got the fiance into it. I got to enjoy it all over again while watching it with someone new who got to experience it for the first time.
"Friends" is one of those shows I hope to watch with L. and have her enjoy it as much as I do. Even if I have to explain to her why coffee houses were so great even before the free WiFi. Even when I have to hold my tongue when she gets upset when Ross and Rachel are "on a break." I hope she'll be able to quote the show just as much as I can. That's the dream!


Someone asked me today if I was still writing. I said, "Not really. I have a blog I write in occasionally."

They were disappointed since they wished I had more of a chance to be funny.

Why did I downplay my blog?

Well, for one thing, I don't always write funny. Especially during this challenge of writing every day. This post, in fact, has no real point in my head yet.

Another reason I downplayed it is because I'm not public about my blog to my friends. As much as I'd love to be associated with "Mommy Bloggers," I don't think I'm quite there yet, to be honest.

I once heard a comedian say that comedians are just actors whose parents couldn't afford orthodontia. Well, in my quest to be a funny writer, I'm proud to say my parents definitely couldn't afford orthodontia so I've got that going for me. And I went to school for journalism so I could call myself a writer, but I wouldn't because no one who writes ever feels comfortable saying they're a writer.

Not to mention my aversion to anything resembling a label for myself.

It's so much easier to be myself while writing when I picture faceless strangers reading my blog. I realize you, dear readers, are not faceless. And I appreciate the hits you've given to my humble little creative outlet here.

But it's weird to write knowing your audience.

As I've said with jokes, you need to know your audience. You need to tailor your jokes to that audience.

Possible Mommy Blogger in the making. Or tired mom
who's blogging at work after finishing her shift.
But with writing, even writing where I don't have a point, I can't proclaim myself an expert on really anything (unless there's a niche for kick ass copy editing and laying out a newspaper). So I'm not really writing for other people.

The first rule you learn about writing is "Write what you know." Well, in the case of this blog, I'm kind of writing what works for me, what I'm learning, and somewhat writing out the process of learning it, since being a parent is pretty much a lifetime enrollment in the craziest and most unpredictable class of your life.

I've also learned if I have an audience in mind, I tend to write for that audience. And I like having a blog as a chance to write what I feel and not get sucked into writing on a specific topic, despite the 31 Day Challenge.

I do, however, post my blogs on Pinterest and know a few friends who catch it there. And that makes me happy. That's my gateway to more social media for Self-Evident Supermom perhaps.

Will I open up more about my blog? Maybe someday. But for now, I kind of keep this blog as an inside joke with myself. And with you, dear readers.

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