The Four Stages of My Writing

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I opened this blogger account in August of last year and i did not do any serious writing till may of this year. In fact i thought posting frequently on this blog was going to come naturally to me because on a normal day so many ideas of things i can write about comes to my mind. But i have tried as much as possible to limit the contents of this blog to two things i am passionate about and those are travel and entrepreneurship. From May this year till now i have tried to update the blog regularly. Because i read on the blog of a very popular blogger/writer that "to be a successful blogger or for your blog to make an impact you have to post everyday especially if you are a beginner".

 But i decided to limit it to writing one blog post every two days because i felt i would run out of stories. Besides the travel stories were all that i had and i felt cannot write anything meaningful about entrepreneurship until i have started a business (which i have not even started yet). But now i write about entrepreneurship because you don't have to be an entrepreneur to share ideas on starting a business. On May 19 i wrote my first blog post on my path to serious blogging and i must say the past three months has been full of ups and downs. I thought the more i write blog posts the easier blogging will be for me but it does not get easier. Writing a typical blog post can take me anything from 4 to 6 hours  not to mention the extra one hour i spend mulling whether to publish the write up or not. So far comments i gather from people on twitter and friends show that my writing is fairly good. I am grateful that people enjoy my posts and are willing to share them. But behind the scenes a lot happens before you see a post up on this blog. These are the stages that i go through

1. This is a great idea stage: I really enjoy this stage because this is the point where in my mind i have written the perfect blog post and it has a billion shares on facebook and twitter with hundreds of trackbacks to taste. At the idea stage, i let my imagination run wild as i think of great topics i can write on this blog and how i can write a hit syndicated blog post. In my minds eye the blog post is finished and it's a success and everybody is texting to congratulate me on the great blog post i have written with praises of how i'm such a great blogger. At this stage, i write down topics for further development. I always wonder why it is that great ideas come to mind when you're at places those ideas cannot be written down instantly especially when taking a shower.
2. The second stage of writing is the "shit fit" stage or "nobody will read this stage": This is the paranoia point where i throw inner tantrums. Before i reach this stage i would have already started writing the blog post and i'm quite confused on what sentence to write next. This point is usually characterized by extreme self doubt and me asking myself questions like Why am i writing this? Who would read this? Nobody likes you? and so on and so forth. At this shit fit, stage i go online to read articles by writers and bloggers who inspire me because i feel reading good articles will make my writing better. For good measure, i also check out poorly written articles and blog posts to help me feel better about my writing. At least i know my shitty writing is not alone. Only after this am i able to continue writing
3. Self Validation Stage: At the self validation stage i tell my self i'm good enough a writer to also have a piece online. I then recount all the positive compliments i have received on twitter and my blog since i started blogging and how i have even been invited to write on other websites and blogs. 
4. Excessive editing stage: At this point, the self confidence from the validation stage has made me write more than enough to bore anyone out of their minds. Therefore its time to access the length of the post to see whether it makes for a good read. I also correct the spelling mistakes and tweak some of the sentences in the best way i think can make for a good read.

After going through all these emotions i take a deep breath and hit 'publish'