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reading blogs

john: hey, john sonmez from simpleprogrammer.com.i got this question about blogging. again, i’ve talked about this a few times but ido have a free blogging course out there that you should definitely subscribe to. you canfind the link here. thousands of developers have gone through this. i deliver it all byemail and it will help you get started if you want to create a successful blog and youreally should if you’re a developer. anyway, i get a lot of questions around thisand i’ve done a few questions around this topic. i’ll read this question here. hesays, “hi john, i’ve got a question that i’m hoping you can talk about in your podcast.”by the way, this is from robert. he says, “i’m trying to be more consistent in myblog.” i won’t put the blog link here

but if you want me to put your blog link robertjust put a comment and then i’ll update the description. “i’ve come to the conclusionthat my posts are boring and whiny. i’m wondering if you have any advice or resourceson what the tone of a post should be and what types of posts have better success than others.thanks. regards, robert.” this is good. boring and whiny. it’s goodthat you recognize this and it might not be true but probably it is if you think it is.so, how can you fix this problem? here’s the thing. writing requires you to find yourvoice. any kind of thing where you—any kind of creative activity whether it be writingor acting or whatever it is, speaking, any of those things require you to find what’scalled your voice which is it’s sort of

like your true personality, what you actuallyare or what you present, like where you feel more comfortable. it’s kind of the groovethat you fall in that is natural for you. it’s the way that you can express yourselfwell and it takes times to find your voice. a lot of times you write something or youdo something and it comes off like you feel like it’s stuffy or it’s whiny like yousaid or boring and it doesn’t have that impact, right? even in this format, in youtube,sometimes i’m on, sometimes you can watch my videos and you’re like, “dang! johnknows what he’s talking about. look at his brain energy and excitement. he’s got itfigured out.” sometimes you might say, “wow, i can’t even listen to what he’s saying.he’s just so boring. so boring, john.”

what happens is in any kind of creative mediumyou have this—you become better at expressing yourself, at finding your true voice and youget glimpses of it. you write something and like this paragraph in your writing will be—thatwill be it, your personality came through. you’re witty and sarcastic and it was funor you have a different kind of personality and that came through and you kind of foundthat voice but you can’t get it again. you try to write again and you just write andwrite and it’s just all boring shit. you’re like, “ah! what’s going on here?” that’sthe struggle. that’s the creative person’s struggle, right? everyone faces this and there’sone cure to this. hopefully i’ve been keeping you in suspense. it’s a how, how can yousolve the problem?

are you ready for this? the way you solvethis problem is you write a lot. you keep doing it. the more that you write, the morethat you do it, the more that you’re going to find that voice, you’re going to findthat personality is going to come out. you’ll notice this if you look at a lot of famouswriters, if you look at some of their early works. i was just reading—and it’s reallyhard to read but ralph waldo emerson. gosh, when he started out some of his first essayshe did not have his voice. it was just all over the place. but as you’re reading andreading and watching as the decades progressed and he becomes a better writer he starts toget his voice. van gogh i went to the van gogh museum inamsterdam and when you look at van gogh’s

early stuff you’re like, “wow, i can paintthis. this is crap. the proportions are wrong.” then you watch as he just–keeps on producingpaintings after painting and he found his voice there. he found his style. he triedall kinds of different styles. that’s the other thing that you could do, you can experiment.try and write a post where—heck, i mean if you go back a few youtube videos or whatever,i did a couple of youtube videos where i was recording with my iphone and i was like, “fuck,shit” and just trying that to see if that voice would work for me because i’m expanding.i found somewhere—that was extreme but it brought me back in. now, i’m not going tojust spew off profanity if i have to a little bit it’s okay, right? it’s like i hadto find the limits of that. you got to do

that. you’ve got to explore different directions.find your limits. write a blog post that’s totally sarcastic, write one that you’retrying to be funny and then you’re going to find the things that makes sense for you.your audience will connect. when you found the thing that’s your voice you’re goingto get all kinds of thumbs up, people are going to be like, “yes, this is right. thisis awesome.” or some people are going to say, “i hate you.” that’s also a goodsign that you’ve found your voice because you’ve evoked emotion. that’s the keything is you connect with people, that’s when you found your voice.i know i’ve made this a little bit long robert, but i really want to stress the pointthat you just keep writing and you keep trying

things and it’s eventually going to cometogether. it’s a lifelong process. you’re never going to be perfect. you’re alwaysgoing to be getting better and discovering new things about you and your voice is goingto change over time. hopefully you get those little glimpses where you know you connectedright and then that encourages you to go on and you keep going. even though your stuffmight seem boring and whiny right now, don’t give up. just keep on trying, keep tryingnew things and don’t worry. you’re going to look silly, you’re going to look likean idiot a bunch of times but then you’re eventually going to gel into the right voiceand that’s—there’s no shortcut to this. hopefully you find this advice useful andi’m going to keep reading your blog and

i hope to see you connecting more and morewith your voice. if you like this video, if you feel like it could help someone, shareit and definitely subscribe to the channel. take care.

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