I took French in junior high and high school – loved the logic of their grammar system, but never quite got the accent down. But, I will always remember this one morning, I believe it was my junior year, that I woke up and realized that I had dreamed in French. My teacher, Madame Murray, told me that was a milestone – that the language had officially entered my subconscious, that I would be learning on a whole new level.
And then, this morning, I was being interviewed on BlogTalkRadio, by Jason Crouch and Ken Cook, and we were talking about blogging. Jason mentioned that blogging has actually helped him become a better communicator live and in person. And it immediately reminded me of my French experience.
Because not only am I a better communicator because of my blog, but it’s actually entered my subconscience to the point that it has affected my thought and communication patterns.
I think in blog posts. Before you call the addiction/obsession/this-lady-is-insane police – hear me out.
- I connect seemingly unrelated things in my mind (obviously that one is specific to this blog) and it stimulates my imagination.
- I find myself eager for conversation, comments, feedback – and then replying.
- I look for ways to connect out – who can I help promote, who deserves credit, who can I introduce to to the people around me, how can I widen my network.
- I feel massively creative.
- I’m categorizing and organizing.
- I’m storing great ideas as drafts to be used later.
- My mind is literally writing my thoughts…the voice you hear here is what’s literally playing in my head – but that’s been a merging to be sure because, of course, the voice I write with came from my head in the first place.
- Some people think I’ve become more humorous…some less.
- As life happens around me, I’m documenting it with my thoughts – beginning, middle, end, publish.
It just works…as I’ve said before…this blog platform. It’s short, communicative, immediate.
I haven’t actually had an in-blog dream yet…but I have definitely dreamed in Twitter – which only goes to show that if I only have time to dream in 140 characters, I’m getting nowhere near enough sleep.
I do that all the time–think about things I can blog about. And Mom joked the other day that she might as well put the cameras out when she sets the table, we’ve been taking so many food pictures lately. (Well, birthday cake, you know.)
Since I have decided to read a ridiculous number of books in the past few years, I have noticed that my vocabulary has increased exponentially. I would like to think that I was always a decent wordsmith, but I find myself typing words that I have to later reference to make sure I have used them correctly. I always do.
Mind you, I have always enjoyed reading and I have always had a great vocabulary courtesy of my grandmother the English teacher. She would not have accepted less. Maybe I am just retaining more than ever before!
So true! I love the way being a blogger makes my thinking both pithy and expansive, the way it opens my observational eyes and creates connections (intellectual, ideological and, in the “real” world, with other people), and the way it lights up mundane things and makes them tickle my creativity. And it all feeds so helpfully into writing fiction too.
I just love reading your posts! They’re always a pleasure, an optimistic, useful pleasure. Thank you!
Julie – I’m glad I was able to inspire this post for you. I’m also glad that I decided to hear you out before calling the “this-lady-is-insane police”. My finger was poised to dial. :-)
David – I find that when I read a book, my thoughts start to take on the cadence of the author’s prose…hmmm…maybe I’m just super suggestible!!!