National Blog Posting Month

2013-11-01

Because I’m trying to propose my thesis topic and have so much time on my hands, I’m trying out National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). For people who don’t know, this is a blog version of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), where people write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November, regardless of quality. The goal for blogging is more relaxed: 30 blog posts in 30 days, one per day, of any length.

My goal is more meager still: I only intend to write 15 blog posts, published on the odd days of the month. I already have the topics planned out, in some semblance of order. Most of the topics are things that I’ve been thinking about for a while now, and have therefore amassed some notes for; others are fillers, fun things I’ve encountered in the last year or so.

I’ve written about writing before, and how it’s an outlet for me to sharpen my ideas. In the years since, I’ve also come to realize that I keep a blog in particular because I often want to share things I have learned. I’m surprised that I needed a friend to tell me this, that it wasn’t more obvious before. Part of the reason is probably that I consistently underestimate my social needs, and simply fail to realize that I’m deriving joy from other people reading my writing. I feel the larger part of the answer though (here I go underestimating again) is that most of my enjoyment comes directly from figuring out my ideas. I like it when I find an expansion for people's behavior that fits into my worldview, or when I develop my own viewpoint on some issue; these can then be used to understand other people. The desire to tell people is a result of my excitement at figuring something out.

There is something I want to get out of sharing though: criticism. During a meeting, my adviser once said, “what I want is for people to argue with me.” The same is true here; some of the things I write will be objectionable, if not ignorant and downright wrong. I want these things pointed out, so that I will know better, or at least have a better understanding of why other people disagree with me. So, I humbly (fine, not that humbly) ask you to call me out, debate with me, and show me that I’m stupid.