Steemit is my first foray in sharing my writing. That being the case, I've made my share of mistakes, each of which I try to learn from. My latest mistake was one of topic choice, or at least it would appear that way. Three of my last four articles were writtne on the book I Am the Word, a book I find to be a very important spiritual work for our time. I mostly wrote in a way that was giving a brief overview of each chapter, trying to hit on the points that stood out for me. These articles weren't really landing, and looking back I can see why.
For one thing, the topic is fairly niche. Not only is it spirituality, but it's a channeled text and the wording is far different from what most people are used to. The other thing I kind of have been feeling these last few days I've been away from steemit (Karen took me to X Ambassadors at Red Rocks!) was that my writing was a bit dry. I was basically parroting the teaching already available in the book and quoting too much. Not to mention, writing each article took a long time because I was referencing the book so much. Because of this, I've decided to take a new direction...
So, rather than doing a summary and trying to hit the main points the book is hitting, I've decided to backtrack to a more personal journey of blogging, one where I share more or what I'm working on and less of someone else's work. This doesn't mean I will abandon talking about I Am the Word, it just means I'll be talking more about what I took away from it and how I'm implementing it in my life. I feel like different material and experiences will appeal to different people, so I feel you guys getting my perspective on the work and how I see it relating to other work is more important than solely focusing on the material itself. I think doing this will open up the discussion more and help others relate more easily.
What do you all think?
This was a good learning experience for me. I tried something new and it didn't seem to be working out, in more ways than one! Not only did I get very low response rate, but I didn't enjoy writing the articles. While blogging should be work, I don't think we should sacrifice our individual voices in order to pump content. Even if we strongly believe in something, we shouldn't try and do what has already been done. In my case, I was trying to rewrite the book in my own words with less room to run with it. And it flat out didn't feel right.
Whenever you get the feeling that you're wasting time or spinning your wheels with some work, maybe it's time for a change-up, or even a completely new direction or project. Reflect on it for a day or two, let it settle in and see how it feels before charging ahead and wasting time. Your audience will tell you, and your heart will too.
Hope everyone's been doing great here on steemit, I got in late from Denver after a flight delay, but wanted to write something up quick. Thanks for reading,
@jakeybrown