Why blog? 

I’ll approach this blog post from an author’s perspective. I’ll focus on the benefits of blogging, and if you’d like, we can talk on Twitter about the pros and cons of blogging. One assumption in this article is blogging in long form. While Twitter and other social media platforms provide opportunities for micro-blogging (short entries), I’ll focus more on long-form blogging in which an entry is at least three hundred words.  

Blogging has many benefits. Blogging can help you order your thoughts, chronicle events and form a different relationship with your audience. It provides authors with the space to delve into a subject in an unhurried way. Trying to squeeze a complex thought into 280 characters may make for a great writing exercise, but it can be challenging to have a meaningful conversation.  

In some ways, blogging creates more intimate relationships with an audience. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but add a thousand words to a picture, and you share about yourself, your expertise, and your insights. 

Why would an author blog? To share, to teach, and to be vulnerable with an audience. Some authors will share reasons they can’t write (death in the family, mental health issues, newborn, etc.). Some authors share insights into their process and open their work (and world) to their readers.  

Blogging for writers is a way to strengthen relationships through a medium that accentuates the writers’ strengths. Writers write. They love the written word. Meeting someone in person is different from meeting someone through writing. A writer with eloquent writing may be shy in person. A writer who took three years to write a book may have fantastic stories about the six months they spent travelling.  

Blogging provides a familiar medium to share and express themselves. A blog can enhance trust between a reader and an author. Trust is critical in developing a following and, more precisely, ensuring that the audience develops into a readership.    

Why blog? It can be enjoyable to you, and it’s something that sets a part of your mind and spirit free. Blog because you have a message to share. Blog because you’re reaching out hoping that someone else reaches back.  

Thank you, @LinosVersion , for the topic suggestion.  

You’re welcome to contact me on Twitter @reneegendron to continue the conversation on blogging.