My big picture is a long writing project. How does the blog fit in? I’ll tell you:

1. Meandering thoughts can be organised into short posts, and are then edited and polished into a format that makes some sense. This helps me to gain clarity over my ideas.
2. Categories and tags helps me to group different blog posts so that a topic becomes more three dimensional – there are various elements being explored and analysed, which create a richer picture for me.
3. Journalling is one way to give creativity a shove. Blogging is another. My morning journal yields many spontaneous ideas that have potential. I underline these as I write, without stopping to expand. Later, I return, lift the text from the journal to the blog, and write it up in a more detailed way.
4. When noteworthy thoughts fly past me, I now grab them, write them down, and come back later to write them up, a bit more fully-fleshed. The format of a blog helps me to save, or ‘bookmark’ what might be useful, and archive it in the blog format in order to keep chipping away at my question.
5. Images help. They are not necessarily related to the blog topic, but I find an image fosters inspiration. I am making connections that would not have been possible without the random addition of an image to the text. I find it interesting analysing why I chose a particular image to go with a particular blog. Sometimes there is no apparent reason – the image is just decorative. Other times there can be a depth of meaning and interpretation that enhances the blog in ways text alone could not do.
6. Blogging is like a journey. When I look back on my posts, I can track my thinking, and even signal milestones in understanding. My blog is part reflection, part roadmap. It is a narrative in what can sometimes appear to be disjointed episodes.
7. The blog itself is a place for generating ideas.
8. The blog is one of several places where I store information, important ‘bits’ that I don’t want to lose. It is a place of gathering and of sorting.
9. I can share my blog with others and get feedback on what I’m doing. It’s something other people can dip in and out of at their own pace, and that does not involve boring them to death in person. If they’ve had enough, they can click to another site.
10. Blogging gives me practice in encapsulating micro-issues and in thinking up headings that have resonance, coupled with visually pleasing presentation. It is a place where the aesthetic element of this type of presentation is also tested.