My mother was an English teacher and she always emphasized the importance of creative writing. This worked well for me since math and science were where I pedaled my heart out and never achieved any distance. Even though 5 interpretive essays on The Scarlet Letter was next to a slow torturous death, and reading the Iliad of Homer was needles to the eyeballs, I have always appreciated writing. I would get lost in books and stay up all night to finish a good one. I have never liked to write, but I have come to see the importance of stretching your mind and keeping it exercised. We live in an era of emoticons and abbreviated words (guilty), and the use of words such as whether and therefore are long gone…
At our last Brand Market Workshop Mandy shared in her segment that there are millions of blogs being started EVERY year. I started blogging at the dawn of the boom, and so I have seen it shift each year. Social media is taking over, and chances are, the blogs you do read are through your social media streams. Instagram is fast becoming the instant fix to quick blogging on the go, and has replaced blogging for some individuals altogether. In conversations, vocabulary use is being replaced with imagery, snap chat, text messaging, and photo captions.
Is this a good thing? Is it a bad thing (well I have strong feelings about snapchat…)? Neither. Just a shift. But as my personality goes, where the stream chooses to flow, I choose to paddle against. Its the stubborn nature rooted in me that loves to go against a trend. I have seen this shift in blogging as a bold faced invitation to write more, challenge my writing, and continue to stretch the power of the english language.
I am a sucker for a good photograph just as much as the next, but with The Portrait Project and other posts here and there, I hope to muster up enough motivation to put power to the pen…or keyboard rather;)
x (abbreviation for hugs), Anna
P.S. Astounded by the response to The Brand Market over the weekend. Tickets are going fast and sponsors are pouring in. Thank you so much!