Repost: How Can Blogging Help You As a Writer?

Enjoy another throwback to one of our past blog posts, all about blogging!

If you’re a writer, finding reasons to produce new work and ways to show it off can be difficult. Not having fellow writers to keep you accountable or workshops to display your writing can leave you feeling unmotivated or bored with the idea of writing.

This is where creating a blog can come in handy. While blogging is certainly not the only way to receive accountability, feedback, and other potential benefits as a writer, it is an extremely easy way to gain these things. Read on to find out why blogging can benefit your writing game.

Blogging is free, at least to start out.

There are countless articles on the internet with tips on how to blog effectively and monetize your writing. While those articles may be correct, very few people are likely going to start a blog and instantly see high reader numbers or have money rolling in. Blogging should be, at least partly, a passion project; you should be writing because you enjoy it and you want to share your writing with the world!

So if you’re just starting out, especially if you’re brand new to the world of blogging, try setting up a free blog. A free site won’t look as professional in the long run, so if you’re very serious about blogging as a career move, you may want to invest in a paid site a little later on. However, having a free blog is a great way to start your blogging journey and see how the blogging life suits you.

Blogging provides easy accountability, especially if you gain followers.

Blogs should be updated regularly, at least a few times a month, so that blog readers don’t lose interest. Therefore, you will have to write regularly, or perhaps develop a backlog of multiple posts in a few furious writing sessions. Either way, a blog gives you a reason to write, and if you gain a lot of followers, they will likely demand more of your work as well.

Blogging allows you to explore your interests through writing.

As most blogging articles will tell you, when you start a blog, it’s a good idea to have a theme for it. Yours may be a fiction blog, a blog centered around a hobby like hiking or crafting, or fall under some other niche. In any case, writing regular blog posts about your chosen topic allows you to practice your writing skills while exploring your interest further. You’ll probably gain some experience in researching your theme and citing your sources, and you may even gain connections with readers or other bloggers who have similar interests!

Blogging gives you a way to display your writing.

While you probably won’t post everything you ever write on your blog (nor should you, especially if you have hopes of publishing your work elsewhere in the future), blog posts can be great examples of your writing to pass along, especially if you’re applying for a job. Since your work is online, anyone will be able to access it, and it will be easy for you to simply attach a link to your blog in an email or social media message to give someone else access to samples of your work.

Of course, you always want to be careful what information you’re sharing, both for personal and professional reasons. However, a well-curated blog can give you one more thing to add to your writing portfolio.

As a whole, blogging is a great way to sharpen your writing skills in a casual environment. Even if no one ends up reading your posts but you, you will still gain experience in writing for an online audience and sending your work out into the world.