While I was studying at the University of Southern California, one of my professors gave me a wonderfully simple piece of advice: “Write something every day.” Whether you are writing in a personal diary, for a job or on a blog page, the consistent practice of writing down your thoughts helps cultivate your writing skills and stimulate brain activity.
Almost every person with a mobile phone or social media account technically “writes” something when they send a text messages or makes a brief post, but these forms of “writing” do not provide us with the benefits that come from more formal writing.
Even if you are just writing in a personal diary for a cozy audience of one (unless you are Anne Frank), you are exercising and improving your writing skills by using your cognitive skills to piece together a story.
Blogging is typically a fabulous tool to utilize for enhancing your writing skills. Here is a short list of some benefits of choosing a blogging site as your location of extra-curricular writing:
1. Blog pages can be accessed for free. There are a number of websites that allow you to create free pages, and they have a number of templates for you to easily employ.
2. Blog pages can subject your writings to a global audience. Writing for a wide-range of web-surfers forces you to figure out how to connect with readers. This also exposes you to critics who can give you constructive feedback.
3. Blog pages can help grow your global network. Connecting with people across the globe while you sit in your local coffee shop is beneficial if you are promoting a brand or a skill.
4. Blog pages can hold you accountable to your goal of writing consistently.
5. Blog pages can be used as a referential portfolio of your analytical work.
6. Blog pages can attract large amounts of subscribers leading to monetary rewards. This occurs when a page is properly developed, maintained, and advertised.
7. Blog pages can force you to get your creating juices flowing. Especially if you are constantly blogging, you will have to figure out different topics to make relevant to your readers.
For years, I have desired to create a beautiful blog where I could share my personal thoughts with the world. I have finally forced myself to find the time to follow the advice of my undergraduate professor. While I will not be posting on this blog every single day, I do plan to publish a post each week.
As I continue to post blogs, I expect to notice an improvement in the quality of my writing. As I experiment with different writing techniques and structures, I also hope that writing down my thoughts will become more effortless.
Thank you for checking out my first blog post on my new page. I hope you continue to read and comment on my pages. If you notice typos or think I can improve my writing in any way, I would truly appreciate your comments. Check back next week for a new (and hopefully more interesting) post!
XOXO, Corina