As far as my writing is concerned, the first half of February has been productive. I’ve been doing a lot of writing, besides my indispensable morning pages. There’s a short story I’ve been pondering on, and that I’ve finally written down this weekend. And there’s this blog that I’m happily giving a lot of attention to. So far it has been relatively easy to write posts for my blog. Thinking up the short stories and observations is fun. It’s a basic pleasure of writing. I would very much like to be able to write a post for my blog every day, but I lack the routine. And obviously, since I write in Dutch, the translating into English takes some time.
So why not blog in Dutch? This is a question that I get from most Dutch visitors on my blog. Wouldn’t it be easier and more consistent to write in Dutch, since that’s my first language, and my first book will be in Dutch? Why go to all that trouble with the risk of messing up my Dutch along the way? Why blog in English?
Well, first of all: I think that blogging should be done in English. My blog would not be viable in the small Dutch-speaking world. I do not expect to find a huge audience for my blog as it is, since it is rather specific. I realize that writing about my writing, plus the fact that my blog is in fact a sort of personal dairy, makes it a definite niche thing. But still: I would like to reach an audience with it. So rather than stepping into the small pond of the Dutch blogging world, I prefer to dive into the vast English-speaking blog-ocean. Plenty of room here for tiny fish like me, plus I do love to chat in English.
My splashing about like this gives me a feeling of freedom. I’m aware that my command of the English language is far from perfect. I mix up times, syntax, and what more. Plus I have a rather limited vocabulary at my disposal. But even though there’s a lot of room for improvement here, I just give it my best and leave it at that. And it’s this not worrying too much about grammar and style-components, that allows me to focus on what it is I want to say. Each blog post is built around the content, is not tangled up in showy words. This focussing in on what it is I want to say is essential, not getting caught up in how I am going to say it is the freedom I feel. All of a sudden I allow myself to write about the small things. Fairly little thoughts and images that I would otherwise dismiss as being too futile to write about, now serve as a starting point for a post. And sometimes they’re not futile at all, I’m beginning to see how a larger story can simply evolve out of something small. And that knowing when to take control of the structure, and when to let the words just come and find their own way, is something I´m learning.
These are some side-effects of my writing posts in English for my blog. The ones I´ve noticed so far. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more along the way. So yes, I´m a Dutch writer, but I believe I´m learning a lot from this blogging in English. So I´d like to keep both of them.
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