Blogging in 2022

Bloggers always seem to be making resolutions, something along the lines of…

I am going to blog every day.

I am going to blog every Wednesday.

I am going to make my blog more positive/exciting/varied/funny.

And most important of all: I am not going to give up!

Now WordPress wants to get us struggling bloggers off to a snappy start for 2022 with an initiative called Bloganuary. It’s rather a clumsy name, but it is all about getting those keyboards rattling and those fingers twinkling, as we each make a post every day based on a daily prompt from WordPress.

If you want to join, you still have a few days. Or you can start a WordPress blog for 2022! (Don’t bother with any of the other non-user friendly platforms!) Just click on the link above and you will receive the prompts (and meanwhile, comments from many other bloggers who will hopefully jump in on January 1). I think there are a few poets among them. Of course we can share our posts on the Bloganuary website and perhaps make a few new online friends and hopefully followers.

Blogging is semi-addictive (one has to have a niggling desire to write that is only satisfied by writing!) and although one does not have much idea about who is going to read a post, or when, or where, one does it anyway. I know very few regular Jamaican bloggers and can count them on one hand.

With Dennis Jones (husband of Therese Turner-Jones, whom I wrote about a few days ago) who is most diligent, I see myself as a kind of blogging triumvirate with Susan Goffe, who keeps an eye on how the Jamaican government is handling matters such as COVID-19. Of course there are others, including Kate Chappell, who posts a glimpse of Jamaican life every day. I also follow Dr. Anne Bailey’s blog, which I quite often reblog here. If you want to keep up with columns from Jean Lowrie-Chin (who writes in Monday’s Jamaica Observer) and Sunday Gleaner writer Dr. Carolyn Cooper, they post their columns on their websites too.

So, considering there will be quite a few Jamaicans joining Bloganuary (Dennis, Susan and myself are in!), I hope more Jamaicans will join, especially younger ones who have much to write about. On young bloggers, I would recommend Candice Stewart’s blog. She keeps her posts short and snappy and always has an interesting thought to share. Here’s her post about Christmas.

No denying it: blogging success is about consistency. One has to stick at it. Bloganuary is a reminder of this. Let’s get to it! It’s going to be interesting.

PS Over the next few days I will be delving into my 2020/21 archives and sharing posts on my Twitter account (@petchary) and maybe on Facebook (Emma Caroline Lewis). Sometimes I can’t remember what I’ve written, so it will be a refresher for me!

I am also planning to do my (once regular) news updates in a different way, so please look out for that…

We press on. Yes, a pun.