Why I write; Angel Jem's City Cottage

'Why I write' Blog Hop; I hijacked the Hop from Coal Valley View. She did ask for volunteers.
 It's going around the blogoverse, and different people have been thinking about it. CJ at Above the River wrote about her writing here, and passed the baton on to Leanne at Today's Stuff, while people whose blogs I have never read have written their thoughts at Miss and Misters, A Colourful Life and Clairey Hewitt from Australia. I guess that is the point of a blog hop; you never know where you'll end up or who you'll visit. New friends waiting to be made, new ideas, places, lives to be learned about. I love blogs just because so many people just write to communicate. And we get to see people who, if they lived in the next town, would undoubtedly invite us for coffee and a really good walnut cake but can't because a continent and the deepest ocean in the world lie in between. More contact makes for a smaller world. I like the global village. Fancy a cuppa? Come on then, sit down and I'll tell you my motivation for this craft I do.

 What am I working on?
 I'm working on keeping up the blog; getting a post a week at least that captures life here in Liverpool. I've been blogging for seven years now, and in that time my children have changed from infants to teenagers. I look back at the beginning sometimes and it is so sweet to see how they have changed. Have I changed, too? Yes, of course! I think when I first wrote I was driven to an extent by what others said or how many visitors I had, and I had incredible blog envy for Those Really Popular Blogs that had loads of visitors or had time to do pretty photography. Life always had too much for me to do to let me take pictures against a white background, and white backgounds don't last long in a house with my children. Now I really have no ambition for the blog to be the centre of a world wide empire or to be anything other than an online diary or dialogue between me and the people who read and comment on the site. No dreams of e-courses, patterns for sale or monetised associate programmes. Just a stream of consciousness set of posts about life, love, crafts and anything else that takes my interest. I hope it's nice to read because there is no drive to succeed.

 How does my writing differ from others in my genre? 
What genre is that? The writing letters to a load of friends at once genre? The bored and need to do something so a new post will fill an empty five minutes genre? The I finished my new bag and I really like it so someone else will as well genre? I suppose if I fit into a genre it is purely journalling, just keeping a line open with the outside world and people who like the things I like, do the sort of things I do and validate my career as wife, mother and worker in the world without judging me as a person. I like that I can write about craft, cooking, days out, and then stick a post on life, politics, religion (although not sex, funnily enough. Don't know why) in and still get a few comments on it back.

 Why do I write what I do?
It's a need to write. I used to write loads of stories when I was a teenager and have a dream to write stories again; I have a plot I'd like to do about a fat, middle aged vampire mother of three, but I need to be more disciplined and set time aside for actual fiction. And I used to have diaries, a lot like the blog only very stop start, from this notebook to this new one. I like blogging better. Somehow the time needed to capture my everyday thoughts and plans on the page is easier, less stressful and a lot more fun. I'm a good listener and talker as well, so I like to think this is a lot like telling my favourite Auntie or cousin about my day today. I should probably not write my Great Novel, but a comedy book about life in general.

 How does my writing process work?
Sometimes I actually plan a post in my head. I know what I want to put down and think it through from start to end. I did have a blog post list once, but more often than not the posts end up being very of the moment, thoughts on life that day, written straight into Blogger and published without more than a proof read for spelling and common sense. Sometimes I read an article or a post online and need the right of reply without feeling vulnerable. Often I won't know til I start what the post will be about. Does that make for disjointed reading? I don't know. This was a rare post that I actually thought about and wrote and saved to review, edit and publish later. I knew I didn't have any pretty pictures (and the weather today is rubbish; dark, dank, miserable moss green trees over shadowing my garden) and that I hadn't made anything, because I'm making a blanket and that makes for really interesting reading (not) so writing and explaining what makes me write was a good time filler.

Where do I go from here? 
This wasn't where I expected to be...... well, it is really. Just a plain not so old (but getting older) Mum with a messy life and a messy blog who used to keep diaries and uses this for the same reason. Except I don't spend as much time calling other girls bit....s of fun. Whoops. There was a real retaliatory streak in my diaries that the blog doesn't have. I've mellowed. I'm happier, more confident, a lot less dependant on the opinions of others. That's good, isn't it? Don't you think???

And my chance to pass the baton on;

Lisa at Jumble and Jelly, do you fancy telling us why you write?
And Jo at Through the Keyhole; give us a glimpse into what keeps you blogging?

If you're a blogger who fancies putting your inspirations into words, please do the exercise and post a comment and link below. It's interesting to know why we do what we do.  And if you're a Blog hopper and a new visitor; welcome! Please say Hi and do please come back again. The more the merrier in the City Cottage!