Blogging for the right reasons

I’ve been thinking a lot about my blog recently. You wouldn’t think it, because things have been pretty quiet around here, but I’ve been putting a lot of thought into what I want my blog to be, and even why I’m even blogging in the first place.

I’m not going to go into the whole “future of blogging” conversation here because it’s been well documented all over the place, but there’s definitely a side of blogging I don’t like at the moment. It feels like everything is about free stuff, free trips, social media followers and overall glossiness. And as a result the content has become a bit…. tired. That’s harsh. It’s more like everything has just become the same. When I read a lot of posts now I can’t distinguish one personality from another – they all blend into one robotic voice, and they’ll all written from a sickly sweet and distinctly PR-friendly point of view (this obviously does not apply to everyone. There are so many genuinely amazing blogs out there. But in general it can feel like everyone’s decided to set up a blog to get free stuff, and that there’s only one way to be in order to get that stuff).

Which led me to think about what I’m actually doing here on Bambi Jane.

Because the truth is, I’ve been struggling to blog. I’ve been struggling to sit down and write about places and things and what I think about places and things. I’ve been struggling to think of tips and advice and listicles. And I love to write – I’m a writer for god’s sake. So it was frustrating and confusing to not want to write, to put it off, to actually dread it.

And then I realised why. I’m not writing about the right things. I’m not writing about the things I want to write about, in the right way. I read a lot of travel blogs and so many writers write reviews and advice posts so well and beautifully, that I felt boxed in by that style of writing. Also intimidated and stifled by it. I love reading this kind of post, and even writing it for other blogs I write for, but when it comes to my own blog, it took me a while to realise that I wasn’t letting myself write the kind of content I really wanted to. Maybe because I didn’t know of too many blogs doing the kind of thing I was envisioning; maybe because I thought nobody would want to read it. Maybe because it’s more personal and raw and it takes more courage to put it out there.

And that’s when it hit me.

Of course I want people to read my blog. But that shouldn’t be

why

I write it in the first place. It should have nothing to do with how many people visit, read, and comment on my blog. It shouldn’t be about followers and likes. I always used to write because I

loved

it, because it felt creative and freeing and lovely. In the past, I couldn’t care less if anyone read it or not. But then I did and it made me scared of doing it at all. 

I’m hugely appreciative to anyone who reads my blog. Thank you so much for taking the time out to read it. Please continue to do so if you’d like! But I thought I’d give you the heads up that the content is likely to change a bit. There are so many blogs offering tips and advice and reviews. I want to write about what’s in my head. What travel makes me think about, what it makes me feel. I don’t want to write about anything because I’ve been paid or asked to do so (unless I think it’s absolutely incredible). I don’t want to think about readers or SEO or what I should be doing; how to drive more traffic or more followers or any of that. I’m not trying to make my blog sustain me financially.  I just want to describe things as I feel them, tell stories, keep an online journal to look back on. To have a completely independent and creative space to write whatever I want to – for the simple reason that I love to write.

I want people to read it and enjoy it, but because I want to connect in a meaningful way to these people rather than boast about how many readers I have or expect these readers to get me things. I’d rather have 5 people who genuinely love my blog than 10,000 for whom it just blurs into a crowd of sameness.

It’s taken me ten minutes to write this post, and it felt better than anything I’ve written on my blog in months. It’s time to get back to why I started writing in the first place.