What I鈥檝e Learned in 8 Years of Blogging
This post was originally published on . It is reposted with permission.听
When I started this blog in 2012, I was thinking of applying to graduate school, and a friend told me that I should start to develop an online presence to give myself an edge over other applicants. He told me an easy way to do that was through blogging. Easy! Ha.
I鈥檓 not sure if it gave me an edge applying to grad school, but I did learn that it鈥檚 not actually that easy, and if you do it right, a blog can work for you in ways that you hadn鈥檛 thought of. My blog is something I hold very dear. It鈥檚 something I created from nothing, that I can share and use to connect with others. It鈥檚 followed me through lots of ups and downs. Here, I鈥檓 sharing with you the highlights of what I鈥檝e learned in 8 years of blogging.
Your voice is exactly that鈥yours. And that鈥檚 why it鈥檚 valuable.
Ahem, I鈥檓 looking at you, colleagues who鈥檝e thought a million times about starting a blog, but then talked yourself out of it because it鈥檚 scary to put your ideas and your experience in front of other colleagues. I still have moments when I think, Oh I should really be more serious, or more academic, or more of an expert, or whatever thing I am not. But what I鈥檝e found is that the things that make me different are what makes the writing valuable to others.
It鈥檚 easy to think, Oh once I鈥檝e reached X milestone and checked everything off my professional to-do list, I鈥檒l start blogging because then I鈥檒l really know what I鈥檓 talking about. No! The value is in sharing your experience,听while you鈥檙e in the experience.听Now, I鈥檓 not diminishing the value of blogging by experts, but I personally love reading about other interpreters learning as they go along, and given the comments on my posts and the messages I鈥檝e received from readers over the years, I鈥檓 not the only one.
Do what you need to do with the comments.
It is scary to open yourself and your work up to criticism. Not everyone follows the 鈥減raise in public, correct in private鈥 thinking. I am super sensitive and take everything personally (I鈥檓 working on it), so I feel like if I can do it, anyone can. You could blog and close your posts for comments, but really, what鈥檚 the point of that? (Although my very favorite blog,听, does just that so it鈥檚 not like a hard-and-fast rule or anything). To me blogging has been all about creating a community and sharing and exchanging ideas. I have my comments set so that I have to approve them before they鈥檙e published. And guess what? There are some that will sit in the 鈥渦napproved鈥 bin forever and ever. There are some that I published that didn鈥檛 make me feel warm and fuzzy, and they may get unpublished some day. The point is, it鈥檚 my little corner of the online space, and just like in my actual life, I get to decide who I do and don鈥檛 interact with.
Have some kind of plan, and don鈥檛 publish just for the sake of publishing.
Bear in mind that the way I鈥檝e lived my life has been this: The only plan is, there is no plan. I exist very comfortably in the space where I can make it up as I go along. And that鈥檚 not how everyone does it, so this advice may be limited in terms of its reach. My initial plan was just to publish once a month, and to speak to my colleagues. Ask yourself who your audience is and write to them. It took me a long time to ask myself what I wanted to accomplish with my blog, because its fundamental purpose has always been to simply process are share my experience in a creative way. If your goal with a blog is to establish yourself as an expert, or to get clients, that鈥檚 a different approach and you鈥檒l want to read about that and think about it a bit in advance. You won鈥檛 see me giving any advice here about strategy or SEO.
Keep in mind that blogging takes time. It took me a long time, and lots of weekends reading FAQs and help articles to figure out even the basics, and it eventually got less time consuming. And this might be a personality thing, but it takes me many drafts to publish anything. I was posting once a month until 2015, when I finished my first year of grad school. During that time, I was totally overwhelmed and didn鈥檛 have much energy to put into blogging, though in retrospect I wish that I had written more and documented my experiences publicly while I was in grad school. Sigh. It鈥檚 also an exercise in acceptance.
Publishing once a month is a reasonable goal. If you鈥檙e feeling creative, sit down and write as much as you can and save those posts in your drafts to be lined up to be published. Jot down ideas for topics as they come to you. And don鈥檛 publish every month just because you said you would. This is your work with your name on it, and you want it to be good and useful and thoughtful. It will grow over time into a larger body of work.
It鈥檚 okay for stuff to evolve over time.
Some of my early writing is almost cringe-y to me. Overly sappy sometimes. But I resist the urge to edit or delete stuff and I appreciate the evolution of my writing style. At some point, I switched from writing long narratives to more bullet point-y stuff (like this post). In the last few years, I鈥檝e branched out beyond interpreting and written about some tangential things, like language fluency. Your blog doesn鈥檛 have to be a uniform piece of work, unless that鈥檚 what you want, of course.
Work and grow with your blog over time. Tend to it. Make sure the links are working. Respond as fast as you can to comments (the ones you want to publish, anyway). Thank people for taking the time to read and to share their thoughts.
Start before you are ready.
Your to-do list can seem daunting, and there are so many choices in the beginning. What do I do first? Which platform do I use? Do I need a better headshot? Do I want an email address for my blog? Do I need a logo and a color palette first? What if I鈥檓 unsure of the name? If it makes you feel any better, I started blogging under a totally different name than I ended up with, on a different platform than I am now. After several months of writing, I came up with the name That Interpreter, and changed to WordPress. I didn鈥檛 have a logo made until, I don鈥檛 know, 2015? And the photo on the home page is seriously outdated, but I just haven鈥檛 had time to adjust the size of my current photo. It helps me to remember that nobody is standing over my shoulder waiting for that next post, or an updated headshot. At least I hope not. That would be weird.
My final piece of advice is to see blogging as a process, and we鈥檇 all do well to see our growth interpreters in the same way. It鈥檚 an imperfection practice, which has been important for me.
It鈥檚 been unexpectedly fun. Like really, really fun. I can鈥檛 tell you how many people I鈥檝e met through the blog. It鈥檚 been re-published and shared all over the internet. Nothing is more fun than meeting someone at a conference and hearing them say, 鈥淗ey, you鈥檙e That Interpreter鈥! In the end, it鈥檚 been an exercise in expressing my thoughts and feelings clearly on sometimes difficult topics, which is a really important exercise for interpreters.
My hope is that you find some of these tips useful. But selfishly, I just want to see more interpreter blogs! Do you have one, or have a favorite? Did you just hit 鈥減ublish鈥 on your first post? Share with everyone in the comments!
About the Author
Liz Essary worked as a Spanish interpreter and interpreter trainer for two decades before pivoting to clinical social work. She currently works as a therapist in Houston.
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