Was chatting with dad on the phone earlier today, and he mentioned that since he'd done so much (and done only) writing for academia and for his organization, he wanted to try writing with no particular goals in mind.
I think this is really appealing, and probably should apply to how I approach this blog as well. In general, having each article have to reach some sort of grand conclusion seem like a lot of hassle. And since this goal is created explicitly so that I could Write for no one else particular, it makes sense that I should sometimes, if not most of the time, write with no particular goals in mind.
I recently made a separate blog called looking through the window. It's intended for entries that are less personal.
In general there seems to be two distinct types of things I like to write about. On one hand there's journal entries and personal updates, and on the other hand there's serious essays. However, these two types of posts tend to have pretty distinct audiences, so it made sense to sperate them out.
I think is will be a good change. Usually, after a change, there's a small period of discomfort before getting used to a new setup. In this case though, both places feel more comfortable to me already.
For whatever reason, I've always found writing in blogs that I expect no one in particular to visit to be quite comforting. Although I've never had a super-long-running blog, every now and then I find myself to be jotting down some new entries in some new, unfound corners of the internet.
Writing for nobody else seems to strike the right balance for me. Not private enough to be rambly but incoherent, but still private enough to ditch a lot of self-consciousness and talk about all kinds of weird and interesting things out there.
Though social media can be fun every now and then, sometimes I do still miss that comfy space.
Like late-night conversations and personal reflections, I think blogging still has a cozy spot in my life.