Surrender...and watch your inner blogger grow

I always read my blog posts a day or two after I publish them - man is it a humbling experience. If ever I needed a reminder that I am a mere human who makes mistakes, this is the moment I get it like a slap in the face. Whack!

There is a beautiful satisfying feeling of accomplishment when you hit that save and publish button. I did it. Somehow another blog post has fallen out of my brain. Yay! Time to share. Next, I log onto LinkedIn promote my post and then I do the same on Twitter, Facebook and even Insta (my poor friends).

Even though I have proofread my post several times before publishing it, a day or two later I check the post again - when I have some distance and when I can see things a little more clearly. It might be a good idea to get into the habit of holding off on promoting my posts on social until I have done this distance check, as all those funny little mistakes that make me cringe, laugh and almost cry need ironing out before anyone sees them. Or do they?

I was talking to my husband about my ridiculous errors. 'I cannot believe I can call myself a writer and spell beta blockers wrong! Even with spell check my spelling sucks! I used "undermind" instead of undermine.' 

Yes, that is correct I actually did this. Undermind - you can't unsee that! 

He kindly said, 'It's just because your brain is moving too fast.' Then he made the strangest suggestion. 'You should do a post on your bloopers.' Of course, my first thought was, 'He's crazy!'

And then, it got me thinking...

At the recent Teach Tech Play conference (which was fabulous by the way) I went to a session on blogging with Kathleen Morris . A conference by teachers for teachers, I felt a bit of a fraud being there (not being a teacher) but I am so glad I went to Kathleen's session. I got so much out of it.

Kathleen shared a lot about the basics of blogging with students. The set up, things to look out for, the pitfalls, copyright, quality of writing and how blogs can enhance learning. But the bit that resonated the most was when Kathleen talked about giving students an authentic audience for their writing. She shared a story about a classroom where students were producing a blog and creating it without realising their teacher was going to get them to publish it. When she announced it was time to share and open it up to the world the students panicked with many saying things like 'but it is not right yet' and 'it is not ready to be shared'.

Why are we so worried about things being so 'right' before we share them with others? I get that sometimes it may feel its too early to share your writing, but really, it never is. You can share in a narrow way - showing early drafts to one or two people close to you (my family are subject to many requests to read my posts before I publish them). When your work is more complete you can share more widely. Gosh, even publish it! The process of sharing your writing is what helps you improve your skill as a writer. It doesn't matter if there are mistakes, show people. It doesn't have to be perfect.

The value of an authentic audience cannot be underestimated. Writing with an audience in mind, letting go and throwing your writing out there for an audience to critique and/or compliment is part of the writing process, which is never ending. Writing doesn't end with publishing, writing is perpetual. And writing in a digital format means you can edit or recreate it, if you want to. Other than on Twitter, where you have to delete your Tweets and Tweet again if you see an embarrassing mistake.

Why are mistakes embarrassing? Why don't we celebrate our mistakes? Our failures? Why do we try so hard to hide them? They are so intrinsic to our learning. Mistakes give us a sense of where to focus our improvement, or what Hunter Maats and Katie O'Brien call 'deliberate practice' in their post Teaching students to embrace mistakes. I won't ever use 'undermind' again or spell 'beta blockers' wrong again (beater blockers - yep hilarious). I grew today (after I had a really good laugh at myself).

‘If you stumble, make it part of the dance.’

Mistakes can also lead to surprising creations. Andy Warhol made mistakes which some call his best work. Some of our biggest blunders in science have been our biggest successes. Like the telephone, which came about as the result of Alexander Graham Bell's bad German skills when he misread a book by a German author, misinterpreting a word for 'wire' and, therefore, mistakenly believing you could transmit sound on a wire. Fabulous mistake that one, and shows the power of belief.

The fear of mistakes is what stops people from sharing their work. But as Kathleen said in her session:

'A private blog is like going to a party with a paper bag on your head'

It's time to take the paper bag off and share - even before your work is ready.

Kathleen's session was clearly inspiring to others, not just me. I saw a blog post from ponderingdan today (great name for a blog by the way). Dan ponders in his latest post about his motivation for blogging.

'This is my space to be curious, and share with others'.

So true Dan. Blogs are spaces for us to be exactly what the definition of curious says: to be 'eager to learn' and to be 'strange'. 

I used to tell myself my blog was just a place for me to capture my ideas. Even though it was never a private blog, with that mindset I was basically walking around with my ideas behind a big fat paper bag I had over my head. My blog is not just for me, it is for my audience, whoever they may be. And it is through writing with my audience in mind that makes me a better writer.

So if you are a closet blogger, it is time to stop resisting. It is time to let go. Celebrate your bloopers. Surrender to your imperfections because they are the things that make you lovable! 

By the way... this post will no doubt have some edits in a day or two, after I proofread it with distance and grow from the mistakes I find scattered among these thoughts that spilled out of my head a little too fast.