A Blogger’s Journey: Storytelling

 A Blogger's Journey, Storytelling

A Blogger’s Journey: Storytelling (alternately titled: Finally Wrapping Up A Blogger’s Journey Series!)

Since we have arrived in Scotland, I have been writing between two and ten pitches every week to random companies trying to get them help us tell the story of our life here, while also promoting their hotel, hostel, tour guide or tour.

My pitches have improved since my first emails to the sunscreen company, but I still get mostly “nos” or “no reply.” For every fun trip I have written about on my blog, you can bet there are twenty trips I did not get to take.

(Remember how I said last time that things are not ever exactly as they seem.)

For me, all the pitching + sealing deals with people = EXHAUSTING.

Sometimes, I would rather just go on a free hike with my family on Saturday than beg, beg, beg for you to let me come stay in your hotel for a night so I can take/edit photos and spend hours writing copy that ends up reading like: Look At This Great Hotel We Got To Stay In For Free.

Because, hello BORING.

But even when I would publish (or just Instagram) pictures from hikes I would find that people often would say “Jealous!” or “I wish” or not anything. And that just made me sad.

A Blogger's Journey, Storytelling

My readers/followers and even my friends and family seem to somehow have a threshold for the number of pretty Scotland photos they care to see. (Go figure.)

So there I was, telling a story that I had worked hard to define and felt was true (Outdoorsy Mama Lives A Dreamy Life in Scotland) but that I was afraid was getting boring. Plus still not getting paid for blogging and having to work very hard for free things in blogging.

Enter Mike Sowden’s Storytelling Course for Bloggers.

After taking this free email course, which by the way I HIGHLY recommend, I decided to do an experiment.

(Existential Blogging Experiment Stage 3 Resurrected!)

In December, I told Twelve Days of Stories.

They had nothing to do with my Definitions or Purposes in blogging.

They were just stories from my life.

But y’all, I loved writing them.

After my Christmas storytelling project, I decided that I would continue to tell stories on my blog.

I thought I had been telling stories all along, but these were different. They stood out from the blog posts I had been doing lately in that they were mostly text instead of photos.

(Wait a minute! Text Heavy Blog Posts Only With Punctuation This Time? Stage 1 Resurrected!)

Mike suggested I tell stories once a week along a monthly theme. 12 Themes for 12 Months of Stories to follow up my 12 Days of Stories.

I began to play with this idea, but I wanted all the stories to tie together somehow. In fact, what I loved about Outdoorsy Mama + A Dreamy Life In Scotland was how it tied everything on my blog together. I still wanted an overarching theme.

But I wanted it to be something that was truly me.

And I wanted it to be something that I would not easily become bored with.

When I thought of it, I knew I had stumbled on exactly what I wanted my blog to be about in the next stage of my Blogger’s Journey.

A Blogger's Journey, Storytelling

Walking.

I was walking everywhere since I had moved to Scotland. I was loving going for walks on the weekends in the woods and I knew I wanted to walk a lot of new cities this year. I love that in the UK, they refer to hiking as walking or hillwalking.

And I love that the idea of walking is so easily transferable to figurative journeys.

I started to write my introductory post about walking + storytelling. I already knew that I wanted to go on some really long walks in 2014 and that I was going to try to come up with a way to tag them all together. (I settled on #48Walks)

While I was writing, I realized that it would be so simple to invite others to do it with me!

I was so excited about this possibility that I just said, Join in! If you can think of a way to be a part of walking with me this year, then come on!

Honestly the idea was so new to me that I did not have time to create any rules or guidelines.

And here’s what really surprised me. People said yes. People started to tag their pictures with #48Walks. I set up a Facebook group and people joined it. I encouraged people to make a list of 48 walks they want to take this year, literal walks or figurative walks.

I started to write blog posts about the walks I am taking. And I started to write stories about walks of life. In January I told stories about Walking Towards the Unexpected. In February, I told stories about Walking in the Dark.  This month I told stories about Walking in the Light.

Maybe when I look back on 2014, I will call it the stage of Walking + Storytelling.

Who knows? But for now, I have found a journey that I am loving and that others can share in, which just makes me giddy. Instead of seeing my picture of a walk I am taking and wishing you were there, I hope it encourages you to find a great walk of your own and show it to me. When someone snaps a picture of a walk they are taking in life and tags it for me to find, it brightens up my day.

As I have shared the story of my blog, you might have noticed that I kept a little bit of each phase along the way. Blogging (and the internet) is always changing, so it is great to experiment! In each phase, I try to keep what is helpful and leave behind what is not.

And even though I have made fun of some of the things I have done in blogging, I want you to know that when I see you trying something new on your blog, I think you are brave.

It’s important to me that you know that. Because there is a lot of comparison and meanness on the internet, you might think I am criticizing you. I promise that there is no question you could ask me about blogging that I would say was dumb. And after seven years of blogging, I know that if you have something special happening on your blog (or in your life) that you worked very hard for it. And that there are probably ten more opportunities you did not get.

Ultimately, I do not think there is any right or wrong way to go about blogging.

Which is the wonderful freedom about blogging, is it not?

I like to remember that my blog is my own creation and ultimately, I can do whatever I like with my little corner of the internet. I can try on lots of hats in that space until I find the one that fits me best. Some days I think the dashboard of my blog will continue to be a virtual costume changing room many years to come. And you know what, I am okay with that.

7 comments

  1. Jeanetta says:

    I feel like since you’ve been in Scotland I’ve had the chance to really get to know you better than just the occasional party at the Greers. Can’t wait for your return.

  2. Stacey says:

    Great post, Alison. And I love the #48walks theme. It’s inspired me to get outside more, to look for beauty in every day. Thank you.

    • Alison Chino says:

      I love hearing that Stacey! It makes me smile every time I see you walking with your little one! 🙂

  3. Debbie says:

    You already know how I feel. Thanks for sharing so much of your journey and of yourself with us, your friends, who love you!

  4. Marie Verkler says:

    Thank you so much for sharing your story about how #48walks started!! I love the outdoors, walking and photography! #48walks encourages me to put it all together! You have definitely inspired me!! Thanks!!

Comments are closed.