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Writing as a creative outlet

pdaddio83

These are some general musings, hope you can hear me out. I've been reading some posts here recently about writing - someone going to write a book, someone who has their own blog, so on. It got me thinking if anyone else does something like this?

I've persistently thought on and off about writing a blog again. I used to write one years ago, it was a technical one though - I'm a software developer, so in my field they tend to encourage a blog of that style to be part of that community. I kept it up for a while, but then I ran out of ideas of what to write and other things took over in life, it just got dull I suppose. Now though I feel like I'd like the idea of a more creative blog, one where I would write about what interests me, like the films/shows I've seen and what I thought about them. I sometimes have this strong feeling of wanting to get my thoughts out of my head because otherwise they just get trapped with nowhere to go. In the absence of knowing many people who'd like to talk exactly about what I'd like, this seems like a good alternative.

I'm also reminded about two of my favourite podcasts I listen to. Both of them have a small group of people - 2, 3, maybe 4 people - talk about one topic in the area I'm most interested in. Listening to them makes me feel like that in real life for me would feel wonderful - except I suppose in real life people don't basically have conversations like talking on a panel Grinning

Since I'm not much of a talker, writing I guess I could do. Pros I think would be getting my thoughts out there, even if no-one read it (I'm not looking for fame or fortune) and just emptying my head of all the imaginary conversations I wish I could have. Cons are that it might be quite time consuming, and I already have a lot of other things to do already.

  • *I sometimes have this strong feeling of wanting to get my thoughts out of my head because otherwise they just get trapped with nowhere to go. In the absence of knowing many people who'd like to talk exactly about what I'd like, this seems like a good alternative.*

    This is exactly it. I write on Medium. Mainly about late diagnosed autism but I have so many other things I've written that I need to post somewhere (not autism related). I love writing, it's therapeutic. It gets looping thoughts out of my head and allows me to move on. I fully recommend it!

  • Hello. I like writing as well, it’s a hobby I’ve done since I was at school. I started writing journals and never really stopped lol. I still have all of my old journals, kept safely in a box. Sometimes I look back at what I wrote, it can be fun and interesting to see what was happening in my life back then and what I was thinking about.

    Writing is a good way of unloading what’s on your mind. If you start a journal you can write as much or as little as you like, they don’t take up much time unless you want them to. Or if you do creative writing you could jot down ideas and set aside a time to write more later. I do three types of writing – my journals – creative writing – computer programming. I find I’m a lot less anxious when I’m writing.

  • I've been keeping a journal for maybe half a year now. I do it every single day, and towards late evening I tend to sit on my laptop for 5-15 minutes and just write about my day: sometimes it is what I've physically done, sometimes it is just thoughts or ideas I've had, or conversations I've had with people. It absolutely has helped improve my mental clarity. Especially when something has happened that day and you can't stop dwelling on it (e.g. a conversation where you embarrassed yourself and you keep replaying it in your head), writing about it helps you get it all off your chest and you can re-read it to yourself and I just find the process super calming. Plus, once written down you know you can forget about it completely and return to it later if you want to.

    TL;DR: get into the habit of journalling.

  • in reply to pdaddio83

    Thank you Pdaddio, I'm not alone in disliking you tube, I don't like hearing my own voice either or seeing myself on screen.

  • in reply to Iain
    Iain said:
    I think blogs have more or less faded from the public view, replaced by vlogs and much shorter reels on social media channels. Kind of like MySpace - they were a thing for a decade or so and were slowly replaced.

    I admit that is a downside, I'm aware that it is not trendy or popular now. However, the idea of my filming myself for video feels horrible to me, I can't stand hearing my own voice. Also, I just don't find watching a lot of videos on YouTube fulfilling. A lot of people don't seem to edit things together very well so it's just incoherent ramblings to me, also with a lot of trend-chasing and commercialisation and attention grabbing. I find it such a shame that basically people's hobbies seem to end up turning into a commercialised product.

    Anyway, I'm digressing. Point is I find writing at least easier to do because I get time to think and edit.

  • pdaddio83 said:
    I've persistently thought on and off about writing a blog again.

    I think blogs have more or less faded from the public view, replaced by vlogs and much shorter reels on social media channels. Kind of like MySpace - they were a thing for a decade or so and were slowly replaced.

    Attention spans are reducing so even conventional web pages are slowly falling out of favour (except the big shopping sites) as people want things to be shorter, punchier and over with quickly.

    I've certainly seen it in the world of fashion where my wife represents and develops products for a range of brands - they rely almost entirely on social media for sales now as people have largely stopped shopping directly or through smaller resellers.

    I keep a channel on YouTube for my property development work, primarily to keep my mother engaged with what I'm working on as she is 6,000 miles away and housebound so she will not see my work first hand in her lifetime now - but she can give me input on layout changes, colour schemes and furnishing layouts so it gives her a feeling of being involved.

    Anyway I have picked up a bunch of followers for some reason and one even bought one of my properties they saw on the channel, so it has a use. I keep the videos to around 5-10 mins with a mix of point-of-view filming and occasional time lapses of me working, the the usual before and after stuff.

    Maybe try to find some like minded individuals and have an autistic forum on whatever is on your mind - it could be informative, entertaining and give other people an idea on how to have a discussion group to make friends and socialise.

    Just some late night musings on the subject.