On Blogging

Recently, my friend Nate shared a thought about blogging that I’d shared with him during a face to face meeting.

Practice writing in your head.

As a writer, you’re always writing. You jot down thoughts, quotes, and ideas. Sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night with the urge to capture an idea on paper. Perhaps, it came to you in a dream. You’ve got to capture it in that moment or else it may be lost forever, or until someone else receives it. American record producer Rick Rubin says ideas are out there waiting to be heard.

If you’re a creative—and you are—I highly recommend his book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being.

Carving out some time to think is also a great practice. In our busyness, we can easily lose track of our creative ideas. As a result, they remain ideas that never come to life—at least not through our hands.

I’ve found that it’s also a healthy strategy to engage with others online and in creative social circles. Artists inspire other artists. Bloggers inspire other bloggers. Not to mention, it helps you get out of your head.

Stretching your creative awareness by exploring content that is different from yours, listening to music you normally don’t listen to, or reading a writer you don’t typically read are all excellent ways to continue growing as a blogger. It’s a means of actively listening that will undoubtedly enrich your own content.

Whether you recognize it or not, creativity is a gift God has blessed you with and it’s up to you to steward it well. That includes blogging in our contentious world.

³¹The Lord has filled Bezalel with the Spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, ability, and expertise in all kinds of crafts.³²He is a master craftsman, expert in working with gold, silver, and bronze. ³³He is skilled in engraving and mounting gemstones and in carving wood. He is a master at every craft. ³⁴And the Lord has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach their skills to others. ³⁵The Lord has given them special skills as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple, and scarlet thread on fine linen cloth, and weavers. They excel as craftsmen and as designers.

Exodus 35:31-35 NLT