Personal Milestone

The weekly prompt of Blogchatter under their Bloghop series was to write either on ( a) Basic aspects of an 'ideal' blog or (b) One personal milestone that you are proud of. I pondered over the choices and felt that the former would mean giving tips for ideal blogging. There is plenty of material already out there giving advice on the subject. I therefore thought I would write about the 'personal milestone'. 

However, on pondering further I realized that an important milestone for me was completing 10 years of consistent blogging - to be alive and engaged in the activity even after so many years. I say this because when I started blogging in 2012, there were many bloggers whose work I got to read, appreciate and admire in the blogger's community, Indiblogger. Yet, today barring a few, their writing is no longer visible in the blogging world. It does no good to "start with a bang and end with a whimper". I see this post  as an opportunity to simply share my journey so that readers can take away whatever they find suitable or appropriate to their situation.  

I first started with a professional blog in prose titled "HRDian Speak" wherein I shared my experiences  working as an HR executive in various roles and areas such as learning and development, industrial relations and corporate policy. This was soon followed by another blog (called Spontaneous Overflow) for creative writing featuring more of poetry and a little of prose ( interviews, short stories and articles). Subsequently, I started a blog for writing exclusively corporate poetry. One matter of satisfaction is that I have been writing consistently. Moving from one blog to another with varied subject matter (switching from prose to poetry and viceversa)  gives me the variety and freedom from monotony.  

One of the guiding thoughts for me in all these years was to write what I enjoy. I was not looking for things to write simply because it is the 'hot cake' subject of the day. It had to be on something that I believed in and  my thoughts are unambiguously expressed irrespective of whether or not it is the current popular view. The material in my blog served as fodder for writing my maiden book " Straight from the Heart- Thoughts and Experiences of an HR Professional". This was followed by the book "Corporate poems- Straight & Simple" which also found ready material in my blogs. Taking part in the A2Z challenge of Blogchatter for two years provided the material for two more books- "Random Thoughts on random words" and "26 Verses and 26 prose notes on 26 lofty topics." 

Consistent blogging for ten years has meant that I can bring out more books as and when I choose to do so. Having said that, I must confess that my focus has been mainly on the writing and not building a solid readership base with SEO and other digital marketing techniques. So much so, readers come and go and I have been happy if I my readers can relate to or benefit from the blog. A reader, Ankit Sharma had written to me thus and I incorporated it in the blurb of my maiden book " At one time, I did not end my day without reading Mr Rajeev's articles in his blog, searching for new topics and concepts in HR. I found him a good motivator and coach, guiding young professionals to excel in their career." To me, it has always been about the relevant people finding and benefiting from my blog rather than having a huge number, giving a thumbs up to a material they haven't cared to read. 

As a blogger, my priority is to post my work in my blog. When you send your poems/writing to anthologies, there could be a delay of months between the creation and the actual publication as time is required for compilation and completing the process of publication. Therefore, I choose the few anthologies to which to contribute in a year. The USP in all my writing, be it professional  prose articles or poetry, is to keep it simple. Using a lot of jargons may give an impression of the writer being a knowledgeable intellectual. I prefer though to sacrifice that for clarity and easy understanding of my readers. 

Looking back, I have a sense of satifaction based not necessarily on the popular or societal criteria but my own criteria of success- After all, it is no mean matter to write consistently for a decade and have readers who can relate to what you have to say...  

NB: This post is a part of Blogchatter Blog Hop www.theblogchatter.com .