Semester Final

7. What have you learned from your struggles with writer's block? Why do you tend to get stuck? How do you tend to get unstuck? Notice any patterns?
8. How do you like having a blog? How has blogging changed the way you write, the way you think, or the way you think about writing?

• Has blogging had any other effects on your life beyond strictly your "school life"? If so, explain.

• For the second semester only: Do you plan on continuing to publish writing on your blog this summer, next year, or beyond? If so, what are your writing goals and how will you use your blog in the future?

10. Where do you get your ideas for blog post topics? What inspires you to write?

Blogger is actually my first blogging account that I have ever made. If Mr. Sutherland never told us about blogger or told us that we were going to be blogging for the whole year, I do not think I would ever blog. But since we started blogging when school started, I have come to enjoy blogging and I blog every single day now. I never thought that we would be blogging in class, I thought we would just be reading books for the whole year and analyzing them, but no, for us, we blog and then we go over it and analyze our own writing to see if we notice any patterns and this is a new and interesting way to practice our writings. Blogging have changed the way I write and the way I think because when I blog, I usually let my mind out - I say whatever is on my mind and whatever I think and feel. And I feel a lot more confident and independent when I blog, especially since we can blog about whatever we want, and doesn’t matter what we say at all. And I can’t usually do that in real life when I talk to people.

When I blog, I use words that I do not normally use that makes me sound a lot smarter. Blogging is easier than writing too because all you do is just type and you can do it anytime you want. I feel that my writing improved quite a lot throughout the year, and hopefully it will continue to improve as years continue to pass by.

I remember in the beginning of the year, I use to struggle a lot with writer’s block. That happens because I just can’t think of what to write. Whenever I read other people’s blogs, it seems like they always have something to talk about. For me, sometimes it would take the whole week just to come up with what to write about. I get unstuck by just writing about the first thing that comes to my mind. If the word “love” comes to my mind, then I will write about love. If music comes to my mind, I will write about music. Etc…

I get my ideas for my blog post topics from my head. For these weekly blog posts, I have been blogging about whatever was on my mind. They were usually about my day though, because something interesting happens to me everyday. I like to tell people about my day and I like it when they tell me about their day too. I like to blog about my day as well, just so I can go back and read over what happened in the past whenever I am bored. I treat my blog as an online diary or journal. Isn’t the point of having a diary or journal just writing about your day? Well actually, I can write about anything in a diary but I mostly like to write about my day, so that’s what I usually write about.

I don’t blog only about my day though. I have some few private posts too and I blog about what I think and what I feel, and nobody gets to judge me, because it’s MY blog - freedom of speech. What inspires me to write is reading other people’s blogs. There are other people from different blogging websites, like Tumblr, whom I like reading posts from. I do not follow that many people; I usually follow the people whose posts I like to read. They are just so inspiring because I like the way they think - the way their brain works.

When I blog, I listen to music too; not those loud very noisy songs that gives you a headache or songs that you enjoy listening to everyday. When I blog, I listen to peaceful music, oh and not the kind of peaceful music that are classical, I meant music that are like R&B or slow jams. It makes me relax and it helps me think a lot better. So I guess that can sort of be an inspiration - calm music.

Even though I really love having a blog and I loved writing in it every week, I will definitely continue blogging in the summer. But I doubt it would be weekly since I have summer classes to attend to and I probably won’t be at home much. And like I said, whatever interesting happens to my day, I will definitely blog about it. Or if I simply have to let stuff off my chest, I will blog about whatever is on my mind. I’ll treat it like an online diary or journal or maybe simply just a friend that I can let out anything off my mind. Because I usually tell my friends about my life and whatever I am thinking of, but when I think about it over and over again, I feel like I shouldn’t have to tell my friends every single detail, and I should blog about it instead and I know that no one will have access to any of my private blogs except for me… I have no idea if that made any sense.

As my sophomore year have come to an end, and reading every single one of my posts from the beginning of the year til now, I feel accomplished. Blogging has definitely made my writing more organized and easier to read. I will definitely continue to blog for the rest of my life, if that is possible, so I must not procrastinate. Then I can go back and read blog 1 to blog 1 million. Hopefully if I have Mr. Sutherland next year, we will continue to blog; that would be totally amazing! And I am going to have to think of really really random topics to write about. I am looking forward to blogging even more and to see what other improvements I will be making. Thank you Mr. Sutherland!