Confessions of a New Blogger by Lucy Le Roux

I have been on a steep but fun learning curve since I started my blog Praise through Trialsin May 2018.The posts on the More than Writersblog have been an invaluable source of wisdom and I have tried with varying degrees of success to implement a lot of the advice given. I thought I would share some of the strategies I have used and my confessions about how it has gone:

1) Write whenever I feel inspired on any device or paper handy. Overall this strategy has worked well for me except for the one time when I was inspired whilst trying to go to sleep; I ended up writing on my phone in bed for 90 minutes which unfortunately led to repetitive strain injury. In the morning my husband was a little shocked and with a raised eyebrow said that he wasn’t surprised I had hurt myself! He suggested that next time I use the computer. Good advice but I don't tend to know how long I will write for when I start and I find it easy to get carried away...

2) Create a bank of material before you put your blog online. This seemed sensible in order to try and take the pressure off myself to develop content to post regularly. I did write for several months before my blog went live but then I got overexcited and put most of my material online in the first week! Oops! Thankfully I have had some time off from my usual work this summer to keep on top of it.

3) Have a plan. I am a naturally organised person; I like to make to-do lists and plans for all areas of my life. However I have discovered that with writing my blog I can very much relate to this quote by Dwight D Eisenhower: ‘In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable.’ In other words planning my writing has helped me have direction and think about my audience and style. However the reality of life means things often don’t get done when I planned, so I’m trying to cut myself some slack!

4) Compose when your emotions are raw.I have found it is quite hard to do this depending on the emotion I am feeling, tears and typing don’t really go! But for me I find that writing is a form of therapy to help me process difficult things and to bring them to God. Therefore if I can write when emotions are raw it makes my work more authentic and relatable to my audience.

5) Seek first to glorify God.It has been good to be reminded of this as I have found it hard not to focus on blog statistics and getting my work seen. However my focus needs to be on seeking to glorify God in all that I do (1 Corinthians 10:31) and to trust him and let him guide me (Proverbs 3:5-6). His ways are higher than mine (Isaiah 55:9) and he has good plans for those who seek him (Jeremiah 29:11).

So in short I have discovered that: it is good to write at any opportunity using any medium, although I don't advise typing for a long period on a phone (duh!); it is helpful to plan ahead but not worry too much when plans become fluid; finally it can be helpful to write when emotions are raw but ultimately we need to follow God’s promptings as we write and seek to glorify him. 

Lucy le Roux is passionate about Jesus, social justice and good food. Her blog Praise through Trials explores purpose, identity and strategies when living with a chronic illness; drawing on her experiences of having Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. When she is not writing her blog, Lucy enjoys volunteering for the UK Christian social justice charity Jubilee+; getting involved in church activities and hanging out with family and friends. You can connect with her on Facebookand Twitteror through her website.