When You’re Passionate About Something, It’s Hard not to REPEAT Yourself!

I think most of us have hobbies, or passions, or just interests that really hold our attention.

In a more ”functional” sort of sense, these are also the things that we spend the most time with… and because they're so interesting to us, it's very likely that we do the same thing — or at least something very similar — over and over again.

Fuchsias after rain...

Consider something like being a painter, or maybe a jewelry maker, where to an outside observer it likely looks like you're just doing the same thing all the time. To you — as the practitioner — it feels different and new and exciting every time you start a new project.

This probably all sounds painfully obvious, but let's turn our attention to the field of writing.

I consider writing to be one of my passions — as well as a hobby, and more — and I pretty much write something every single day. Without a doubt, I do repeat myself and possibly quite frequently!

Honeysuckle about to bloom

In the context of something like keeping a blog on Steemit, there's little doubt in my mind that some of my 1,400+ blog posts are very similar; even remarkably similar. But that doesn't necessarily mean that I'm copying myself, nor that I'm republishing the same content.

It simply means that there are certain things I am more interested in than others, and like most people I'm more likely to write about the things that interest me.

So what's my point here?

Fundamentally, but we shouldn't be too hard in ourselves if it sometimes sounds like — and feels like — we've ”been here before” when we're creating a new post. Those among you who are fairly prolific bloggers probably know what I'm talking about! And I don't think it's entirely fair to be expected to remember every single thing we've written...

Which brings me to the next topic: what exactly IS “original content?"

In my case, I know that every time I sit down in front of the screen and have an idea, I start from scratch… not with an old article as my starting point.

It all makes me think about storytelling in olden times before the written and printed word. Stories of tribes and villages and families were passed along in the oral tradition, and often the same story was told dozens of times but there would be slight differences every time, because the storyteller might remember different details, or he or she might want to pass along particular lessons inherent within the story.

As bloggers, we are the modern day storytellers. And so it only follows that some of the stories we share might be similar or the same, only told slightly differently each time we tell them.

But that certainly doesn't make us copyists!

Thanks for reading, and have a great reminder of your week!

How about YOU? Does it ever feel like you are repeating yourself with your blog posts? Do you find that you sometimes write about the same topic? Conversely, do you try particularly hard to always come up with new material? Do leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20210707 00:35 PDT
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