“Well begun is half done,” Aristotle said. And Aristotle, as we all know, was a very smart man. This quote by Aristotle, however, presents only one part of the picture, and the picture is quite incomplete without the other half, which is as important as the first half. This other half can be summarised with Shakespeare’s line, “All’s well that ends well”.

In my discussions with friends and peers, I often come across instances where someone starts writing something, and then, somewhere in the middle, they lose interest and give up. I myself have done that many times. An idea strikes me. I sit down on my computer in right earnest, and then, half way through, I feel that the idea was not as exciting as it initially seemed. I lose all interest in completing what I had started, and the piece remains unfinished forever.

Does that ever happen to you?

If you are anything like me, you must have had something like that happen to you too.

Lately, however, I have changed my approach. When I start writing something, I make sure that I take it to it’s logical conclusion. Sometimes, I am not satisfied with the end result, but I always have the option of improving it later.

However well you begun something, it will not mean much if you don’t end it well, or do not end it at all. On the other hand, if you manage to finish something with flair, there is a very good chance that people will forget, or ignore, how you had begun. So, focusing on the endings is just as important as focusing on the beginnings.

Finishing what you begin is important as it makes you more productive. If you leave your pieces unfinished, you are, in turn, letting many of your ideas go waste. Starting things, and not completing them, leads to a feeling of dissatisfaction that can accumulate over a period of time, and eventually result in the much feared writer’s block. On the other hand, if you get into the habit of finishing everything you start, you become confident that once you sit down to write, you will get up only when you have got something to post on your blog, or something to send to the editor, whichever the case may be.

Sometimes, it is mere laziness, that stops us from finishing things. We might find any excuse for not completing what we started, but the fact is that we are not willing to do that extra work that is required to complete our piece. By making a habit of completing most – if not all – things we start with, we can get into the habit of working just a little bit extra and, as a result, produce excellent work. Would you not want that?

Image courtesy: cobrasoft from sxc.hu

As a blogger, you are sure to come across people who will ask, “Hey, why do you even blog?

A lucky few can answer the question with, “I do it for money”. A majority of others have to make do with,” I blog because I like to.”

I am sure you like to blog; I am sure because I do too. But, in addition to that, there are some practical reasons why a person should blog. Here I am going to list four of them:

1. To improve your communication skills: To communicate is a human being’s most basic need. Whether it is happiness, or joy, or just a general state of  ennui, it has to be shared. Writing is an important means of sharing, and one that you have to resort to often – both in your personal as well as official life. I have seen many people who can accomplish the most difficult tasks in a jiffy, but they break a heavy sweat when they have to write something.

If you blog, however, sooner or later, you begin to love writing, and though there may be times when you want to stop, there are other times when you just can’t wait to get your hands on to a computer so that you can post. Also, when you have been blogging for any length of time, you will see a marked improvement in your writing skills.

Blogging also helps in arranging your thoughts in a manner that they become coherent and presentable.

Have you ever read something really impressive and thought to yourself, “Hey, wait a minute, I had exactly this thought a few days back!” You must have, except you did not realise it at that time. Blogging will help you pen down that thought before anyone else does.

2. To make friends: The rise of blogging is most importantly because of it being an interactive medium. When you write something, you quickly get feedback from the readers. Some of these readers will like your blog, begin to visit your blog regulalry, and even you might begin to visit theirs, if they have one. Then, before you realise it, you find that you share more things in common than you orignally thought, and you become great friends.

Ask any blogger you know and, I am sure, he will have a story to tell you about how he made great friends through his blog. Who doesn’t need a good friend in these days and times?

3. To become an expert: Maybe you are not interested in improving your communication skills, and neither are you interested in making friends. Should you still blog?

The answer is a vehement yes!

When you blog, one fine morning you will find that you have run out of things to say. You have said all you knew. The proverbial pen has run dry of the ink. What do you do? You refill the ink, right?

This is to say that you begin to explore and learn more about the subjects that interest you. There is a source of infinite knowledge – the Internet – at your disposal, and you begin to use it. Soon, before even you realise it, you have more knowledge about the subjects than your peers. If you keep at it, you even run the risk of becoming an expert.

4. To become an early adopter: This one is hard to explain, but due to a variety of side effects of blogging like spending more time on the Internet, trying to spread the word about your blog, having more smart friends, etc. you will find that you become more aware of the latest trends that are taking the world by storm. Not only do you become aware, but you also  want to experience these changes first hand ( maybe because you want to blog about them before anyone else does). So, you go on from being a laggard to an early adopter.

So, are you going to start blogging now? If you already do, what is your reason for blogging?

“An elevator pitch is an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (for example, thirty seconds or 100-150 words).” – Wikipedia

The first task of the “31 days to build a better blog challenge” is to write an elevator pitch for your blog. The idea of having an elevator pitch for your blog is a good one, because many a times people will come up to you and ask, ” What is your blog about?”

If you don’t have an effective answer to the question, then any interest the person might have had in your blog will vanish into thin air. And we definitely do not want that to happen. Do we?

I started this blog to replace my blogger blog. But, I did not realise that I had grown to love that blog, and even after starting this blog, I could not stop posting on that blog. So, now I had two blogs on my hands, and both had similar content. Something needed to be changed.

So, I decided that this blog was going to have a niche. After going through a list of things that I could blog about, I decided to use this blog to focus on writing, and related issues.

Thus, was born, the tag line of this blog : Writing, among Other Things.

This tag line  is also my elevator pitch.

What is your elevator pitch?

Darren Rowse of Problogger fame is running a project during the month of April this year. The project is called “31 days to a better blog”.  In Darren’s own words,

The idea behind this is simply to have a group of bloggers setting aside a month of their time to work at improving their blogs. While we all want to have better blogs sometimes it becomes one of those things that we’re going to do…. one day.

I personally find that I improve (in all areas of my life) when I’m more intentional and set aside a specific time to make the improvements. That’s what this project is about.

The idea appealed to me as I have also been trying to make some changes to improve this blog for quite some time now, but, for one reason or another, I have always procrastinated. So, though this project comes at a time when I have quite a few obligations already lined up, I have signed up for the project and am looking forward to it.

The project was to start on April 1 (and it was no April fool’s joke), but as notified by Darren through an email, the project has been delayed and will start on April 6.  That means you still have time to join in the fun.  And if you are a skeptic, I will say, “Give it a shot, what harm can come of it?”

It has been more than a month since I have updated this blog. This is not good as this was definitely not what I had wanted for this blog. Of course, I always knew that I would never be like many other bloggers, who make it a point to blog atleast once every day. Yet, I had also not thought that things would come to such a pass that I would not have a posted in over a month.

Something tells me that I am not the only one who is in a position like this. I see many blogs on the Internet that start off very well, but begin to lose steam in a while, and are eventually given up. Why is it that many bloggers find it easy to keep blogging over a period of time, while others find it very difficult to continue beyond the first few months?

I am sure there are many answers to the question, and I would love to hear what you have to say on the subject.

But, based on my own experineces, I feel that one of the answers to the question is : Organization!

Being a good blogger, like many other things, is about being organized.  One has to organize both tangible things ( blogging space, table , PC or Notebook etc.) as well as non tangible things (thoughts, ideas, emotions etc.).

Many pro-bloggers have this habit of putting up pictures of their blogging space. One can’t help but be impressed by the neat and clutter-free environment they are operating from. When I compare this with my own working space, I find that my table is so full of papers, and books and stuff that I find it quite difficult to find a place to set my Notebook on.

On a similar note, I think a good blogger is one whose thoughts and ideas are very well organized in the head, as this organization usually gets reflected in the blog too. Contrast it with someone who has many great ideas, but they are so random and unorganized  that when he tries to pen them down, he can’t get hold of even a single idea.

So, my advice to someone who is in the middle of a blogging slump would be to clear the clutter and become organized…right away!