The Empty Spaces: Picturing A Life Without Blogging (#Selfiebration)

I've talked about how "Creativity, Connection, and Confidence" are three reasons why I (still) blog. A new post/prompt for BlogHer's Selfiebration comes at that from a slightly different angle: "How would your life look now if you hadn't started blogging?"

One thing that makes it hard to answer "what might have been" questions is that there's a chicken-and-egg aspect to them: would you miss the things you think you'd miss if you'd never known them in the first place?

There are so many people who have come into my life through blogging--all those connections, some of which have made the leap from words exchanged onscreen to time spent together in places near and far. Without blogging, I literally wouldn't know who I was missing. But I do know that blogging has given me the chance to make friends from all over, and this introvert would have even less of a social life without it.

There are things that I wouldn't have learned without blogging. There are things I wouldn't have been interested in learning without blogging. Thanks to my husband's influence, I suspect my fondness for photography might have grown anyway, but blogging is what's gotten me to explore photo-editing apps and visual expression. Blogging has definitely made me fluent in social media. My particular blogging niche has taught me a lot about publishing and the book business (*edited to add this after Kathy's comment reminded me!) And of course, blogging is responsible for my identifying myself as a writer, even as I'm still number-crunching for a living.

However, on that note, I do know of one thing that would absolutely be different: I wouldn't have a freelance side gig writing book reviews, because that came about as a direct result of what I've written here on the blog. (I had to submit three sample reviews when I applied to be one of Shelf Awareness for Readers' first reviewers). And that brings to mind a few other things that would be different:

• I wouldn't have as many books. period. Obviously, publishers wouldn't send them to me, but I just wouldn't know about as many books if I didn't learn about them from book bloggers!
• I would probably still have my irrational fear of running out of things to read, because I wouldn't have as many books.
• I would spend more time reading the books I have, which means I would get through them faster and, therefore, be more worried about not having enough of them.

I'm glad to have all the books. I'm glad to have the blog. I'm glad you took a few minutes to read my thoughts on what my life might look like without it. And if you have a blog yourself, how might your life be different without it?