It's important to read and re-read what you're writing. You don't want to be completely sloppy or hap-hazard with your writing. Similarly, you wouldn't want to post a picture that will haunt you (or a member of your family) for years to come and you want to put some thought into your video before hitting the record button. What you don't want to do is overthink every little part of your message. It's the imperfection that helps make your voice unique and draws people to you. If you haven't heard of Glennon Doyle Melton, you should really look her up. She's an author with over a 1/2 million followers and she's far from perfect. She struggled with bulimia and addiction, her marriage endured adultery and she is currently separated from her husband and just this week announced (via Facebook) she is in love with two time Olympic God Medalist Abby Wambach. Glennon is a Christian mom blogger who has openly admitted to falling in love with another woman. Talk about being authentic and far from perfect. Her post about Abby is beautiful. There are sentence fragments. It doesn't matter. Love and beauty aren't perfect. Authenticity isn't perfect. The imperfect message, from the imperfect blogger...now that's perfection!
The next time you sit down and write your heart out and talk yourself out of publishing the message, I want you to think about this post. What you are doing is negative self talk. You are telling yourself that your message isn't good enough. That you aren't good enough. If you wait for the perfect moment, you are not only cheating yourself, but you are cheating your readers and your potential readers. Type through the tears and the mess and just get the message out there. Authentic blogging doesn't require perfection.
What's been holding you back? What does your self talk sound like? Are you fearful of doing a video on your Facebook page because you feel awkward? We want to hear from you. More important - those of you who aren't being held back, how did you push through those fears? What advice would you give others? How do you feel about imperfections in blogging?
Share you thoughts and ideas in the comments of this post - we love to hear from you!
PS - just for fun, let me know of any imperfections you can find in the above picture of my little fix it man! There are lots!
Hugs,
~Crystal
You can find Crystal riding unicorns, taking the ordinary and giving it a little extra (making it extraordinary), blogging and reviewing books, baby carriers, cloth diapers, and all sorts of other stuff at:http://bringonlemons.blogspot.com/
3 comments:
Nicely said, Crystal. As a fledgling blogger who still doesn't fully understanding the point, I am nonetheless finding myself being much more forgiving with what I blog than with what I 'write' (if I might make that distinction). Having said that, more readers in an audience who make comments would be nice, so maybe extra care and relevance is warranted early in the initiative.
Crystal--I shudder when I see I made a typo--even in a blog post--but sentence fragments? That is a stylistic thing, when used deliberately. I love the idea of being authentic and writing from a vulnerable place... I guess I still would like my posts to be grammatically correct.
Does the little boy have three hands? And does the kitten only two (or three) legs? Or is my vision failing me?
Kalan,
You bring up an interesting point - if you're sloppy and new your message may get lost. People won't find you credible. I also think it's okay to publish and then fix your mistakes...I've actually gone back years later and found typos and fixed them. For me at least, when I'm "in the moment" I don't see the errors - when I re-read years later when the emotion is gone, I can suddenly see the mistakes.
Write on!!
Hugs,
~Crystal
Sioux,
I snapped the picture and posted it to Facebook - it was comments from friends that helped me see what you see! That 3rd hand is Breccan's helpful little sister trying to get a piece of the action. The kitty has 4 legs and I'm not sure how that ended up looking the way it did. I do however know that we don't have an inside cat. The picture is a mess - but it's still wonderful, isn't it? That's how I hope people view me - I'm a mess, but once you get to know me I think I'm a good friend.
xoxox
~Crystal
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