Mister Bump UK

Fandango’s Provocative Question (29 April 2020)

Wednesday. Fandango’s Provocative Question once again. This week, he asks:

As a blogger, when it comes to your blog, what makes you tick?

I’ve addressed this one a few times. Straight away, I have observed the purpose has changed over time.

I started the blog maybe a year after I had a stroke. In the first instance, it was just the easiest way of keeping a diary. Nobody else would have been interested (in fact, I’m surprised they are now, but that’s another story 🙂), but the important thing for me is that I could record something, physical or emotional, and it would be created with that little timestamp in the corner. So, it was a case of, last month I walked 10 yards, now I can walk 15, and so on.

The bottom line is because recovery progress is sufficiently slow, if you just look day-upon-day, you never see anything. Seriously, my first piece of advice to any survivor was keep a diary.

But frankly, if you look at what I write about now, you’d never know I’d had a stroke if it weren’t for the name I chose. (And, one day I will probably change that too, but I’ll wait until I’m fed up with it.) But this has got to be a good thing, hasn’t it? Because once upon a time, my interest was my health, fairly and squarely, and now it is much more general. I’ve often compared the stroke to a ball with no air in it. That was my world. And as the air is pumped in again, it all gradually re-flates. That has been my experience.

In fact, that brings me to the present day. Read one or two of my recent posts – and the stroke is nowhere to be seen. I blog now just because I enjoy the interaction with people. It isn’t just WP, although I do like it here, because I did use Facebook previously. And it isn’t writing, per se, because I’ve found that 90% of this community is reading. In fact I’m trying to impose a rule on myself which is basically that I’m not going to answer a prompt unless I am also prepared to read other people’s responses to that prompt. I’m doing okay with FOWC and SLS, but it is still a case of trying to get into the habit. So, where better to carry on than with FPQ?

12 comments

      • Before I attempt a very short story. I spend about two days going over it in my head. The toughest part is to find a theme for the story. Once you have it, its a question of dreaming about the story, trying to make it real, putting yourself in the event. When I follow a prompt I go to bed at night dreaming about it. My point of view anyway…….I’m never really happy with the result…..but there’s always next time.

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  4. Hoera for re-flating!
    And I fully agree about the initial ‘purpose’ of (your) blogging. When recovery isn’t a speedy process it’s nice to see the change of topics or even some lighter writing and then you can see the change.

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      • Yes I see and feel a big difference! It’s even harder now to write about solely depression because it, well, makes me feel depressed in a way. I see that I’m also looking for new topics, like in my real life and that is a journey on its own. (I will still write on depression but maybe not that often).
        You re-flated very well, like you said, you don’t write often about the stroke.

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        • My mind is fully recovered, in fact it is better because I know so much more, but I am still too likely to spend the day sitting on the sofa, especially at the moment. I used to force myself to write about the stroke because I always had the hope “one day I will not be able to recognise this”. I never particularly got upset, but I can imagine that it might. I was far more “it is what it is”. Even that – being unapologetic, sort of – was a step along the road.

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  5. I feel there are many reasons to blog. Keeping our creativity in tow and it gives a feeling of relevancy. When I retired, I needed to fill the void. I started blogging in 2015 and have changed my format a few times. Now I have 2 blogs and enjoy every minute of it.

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    • When you started, was it on WordPress? And, did anybody read it? I started on Blogger and it really was like a diary. I mean, there would have been no harm if somebody read it, but I can’t think there’d have been any value either. It’s only really the last twelve months that I have found all the interaction (which is what makes it, I think).

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